


Broken Wings ~english translation~

by Nina36



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Genre: Angst, F/M, WIP, translation of an italian fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2013-01-27
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:42:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 45,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/657180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nina36/pseuds/Nina36
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>six years after the events that changed their lives forever, Seth Gecko and Kate Fuller cross paths again, for another fight. Past, present and future are at risk for the two of them. Will they survive? Will they defeat new demons and get rid of their own personal ones?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1  
\- The meeting -

 

Fight the fight alone  
When the world is full of victims  
Dims a fading light  
in our souls  
Leave the peace alone  
Now we all are slowly changing  
Dims a fading light  
In our souls

 

“I may be a bastard, but I'm not a fucking bastard”

Although it had been six years since she had heard those words, she still recalled them. Kate Fuller looked around as she sped up her pace.   
She still recalled the sunbeams and how they had hit her flesh making the stench of blood in her hair and on her clothes more disgusting.   
Despite Seth's words there hadn't been tears.   
Not for that man…not for that goodbye.  
She had been left alone and yet there hadn’t been any tears, maybe because time for crying was over. Or maybe she had just run out of tears.   
Six years.   
Her life had changed after that night, so drastically that no one would have recognized her…if there had still been someone.   
Kate, though, was alone.  
She was alone, wandering from city to city.   
She was alone, living in a Motor Home his father had bought for a vacation.   
She was alone, sleeping during the day, gripping a cross in her closed fist, and with a gun hidden under her pillow.   
She was alone, working in the seediest bars, with her eyes and ears open, constantly looking for them…for vampires, to kill them. She fought against each and any of them as if it was the first and last of their kind.   
She was alone, and yet she couldn’t help constantly looking for Seth. Was he still alive?  
Her senses were used, after six years, to recognize them, to recognize the monsters hidden behind masks of flesh and blood, even when they were perfect, allowing them to blend among humans. To pretend they were until it was time for them to strike.

Her heart, rather, what was left of it, that kept hoping that he entered one of the bars where she had gotten used to working, and looked at her, making her feel alive, again. 

She let slip a stake in her right hand, while she looked around. The Titty Twister had just been the first nest she had cleared off from vampires. There had been lots more after that. 

Whole clans of vampires had been destroyed by her…and people like her.

She had quickly found out about another world, once she had started killing vampires, an underground world, filled with men and women who had dedicated their lives to killing vampires, just like her. It was a world where people were linked to one another, bound together. It was a world she used…refusing, though, to be part of it. 

Because she worked alone. She stopped in a town long enough to do her job…and yet in every town, every hellhole she irrationally looked for him. 

In every town, every hellhole she stopped in…she looked for Seth. 

The others, the other vampire killers claimed she was as cold as ice, a bastard, even worse than the vampires she so efficiently killed. 

Kate didn’t smile.   
Kate didn’t make friends.   
Kate killed vampires, without missing a beat. 

And it didn’t matter whether the vampires were men, women, kids or occasional partners during patrols. Once bitten it didn’t make any difference.   
Hesitation wasn’t allowed. Feelings weren’t allowed. 

Kate…had left herself, her very soul in that burning hole in the middle of the desert. 

And her heart had gone away in a red-blood convertible, under a Mexican morning sun, so different than that cold Canadian night. A starless night: perfect for that town’s vampires. 

She crossed the street, following her instincts, for some strange reason she always knew when she was being followed. If she was in that moment, and she wouldn’t be surprised, they would come to her, one way or another. 

Besides, she wasn’t scared of humans. It had been a long time since a gun aimed at her head had had the power to scare her. 

A long time since she had last screamed…or cried. 

She spotted them, right away, a couple, walking not far away from her. The young woman was human, and lightly stoned.  
He…the guy walking next to her, with an arm casually drooped around her shoulders was tall, dressed in a jeans and a sweater. 

They both had been in the bar where she worked, but it had been him, she had really noticed. She had noticed the way he had gotten the girl drunk, the way he had played with her, dazing her with promises of pleasure, in the way he had kissed her, held her, touched her. 

He was a vampire. 

It had taken her just a look to recognize him, even before she had noticed his m.o. so similar to that of the many vampires she had killed over the years. 

The girl was laughing, lightly hanging onto him, she had a hand in the pocket of her coat, probably looking for the keys of her apartment. She slowly got close to them, as the cold wind caressed her face and lightly ruffled her hair. 

She was calm. She didn’t feel a thing: no fear, no anticipation. Nothing.   
Killing vampires didn’t excite her.   
Killing vampires didn’t satisfy her.   
She wasn’t trying to avenge her family’s death by killing those fucks. 

She killed vampires because that was the only thing she knew how to do.   
And she was good. She had been a fast learner and she had had a good teacher. 

Kate got close to them, proceeding cautiously. As the years had gone by she had learnt to be as silent as vampires when she wanted to. She could see them more clearly, now: they were kissing, and she started to calculate the distance between them, wondering whether she would get there in time, before the vampire started feeding on the girl. 

She strengthened her grip on the stake, deciding she would, just then the girl tilted her head up, breaking the kiss, offering her exposed neck to the vampire. And Kate had to stifle a groan.   
Damn bimbo, she was making it all more difficult!

Kate kept getting closer, mentally counting up to ten, that was what it usually took to vampires to drop the human mask, to show their real faces, before they started feeding, thus creating other vampires. 

She had a gun with her too, but she knew that she wouldn’t probably have the time to use it. And besides, guns had that annoying, pesky habit to be as noisy as hell. Keeping a low profile was of the essence in her line of job. 

The guy’s face, a handsome face, as she had noticed that night, morphed into an ugly mask, a kind of a cross between a human and a feline when she attacked him. 

No one expected such strength from her, neither vampires nor vampire killers. They didn’t know, they couldn’t even imagine the hours she spent training. They couldn’t know how many hours she should have spent sleeping she filled with physical training, instead. 

It still happened. It often happened: she would wake up with the breath caught in her throat, deafened by the beating in her chest, and the motor home, which suddenly became too big…too suffocating, almost as the womb of a big creature. A big, dead, creature. 

As the years had gone by she had realized the worst dreams weren’t, as one would expect, the nightmares. Even the worst of them, were better than the dreams where she smiled, where she was happy with her family…or Seth.   
Those were the worst dreams. 

Those were the dreams that made her wake up, with eyes burning with unshed tears, and her body that refused to take in air…to let her breath.   
When it happened the only antidote were sweat, muscles that ached for the effort she put them trough. 

Kate was strong. She was strong enough to surprise the vampire long enough to save the girl. The vampire made a sound, very similar to a roar as he charged her. She moved, as quickly as she could, and the vampire missed her. She wasn’t as swift as the motherfucker, but she was quick enough to confuse him. 

She just had to prevent the son of a bitch who was now onto her to bite her. Not that she cared about living or dying; she just wanted to take out as many vampires as possible before dying. 

She heard footsteps and cries, so the girl was getting the hell away. Well…that was good, at least one part of the mission was accomplished…now came the other part: killing the bloodsucker. First, she thought, gritting her teeth, she had to keep him away from her. 

He was strong. Way strong. It had been a long time since she had met such a strong vampire.   
The vampire looked at her and sneered as he got astride her; his face was a mask of excitement and anger. Yep…he was ugly alright. 

The vampire’s sneer became almost scornful when he said: “When I’m done with you, girlie, you’ll be my bitch…but before that, I’ll make sure you regret you were even born. It’ll be slow. It’ll be painful. I swear!”

The vampire gripped her right wrist and beat it against the cold pavement, and Kate let go of her hold on the stake, moaning, more in surprise than pain. 

“I like it when you moan,” He hissed: “and you’re gonna do it a lot for me!”

Kate blinked her eyes open. 

She wasn’t afraid. She knew it would happen sooner or later.   
She knew it wouldn’t last forever. 

Six years had been a long time for her to fight. The last six years had been almost as long as a lifetime for her. 

She was just sorry she was going to die by that idiot’s hand.   
She was just sorry she hadn’t had the chance to see Seth, one last time. 

She closed her eyes, as the revolting vampire’s face, kept getting close to her neck, and couldn’t help shivering.

That’s it, honey. She thought. End of the road…

She could feel the vampire’s cold breath on her face, it was on her neck now and it was as rotten as his flesh. She tried one more time to free herself, but all for naught. He was really too strong for her. 

She narrowed her eyes, wondering whether she was going to have enough time to blow her brains out before she became a bloodsucker. Her father, a servant of God, the best person she had ever met, had lasted half a hour after being bitten. How long would it take her?

She felt the vampire’s coarse tongue, lick her neck for a second, before a voice…a voice she had thought she would ever hear again, screamed, “Hey! You fuck!”

Without even thinking, acting out of instinct, ignoring the frantic beating of her heart, she took advantage of the vampire’s distraction, and kicked him, using his own body as a lever to get up.

She was efficient. She was as cold as ice. 

She was a bastard, worse even than bloodsuckers. The stake rammed into the vampire’s torso, as easily as usual; it was like plunging a burning knife into butter.

She took a step back, keeping herself away from the vampire’s blood. She was panting, although she didn’t even realize that. She remained detached, as she looked at all the blood, his flesh exploding sending pieces of it all around her.

“Kate?”

His voice…his voice sounded incredulous. 

Six years.   
She had waited for six years.   
She had hoped for six years. 

She slowly turned toward the voice: her heart…how long had it been since she had last heard it beating so fast in her chest? She honestly couldn’t remember, and she didn’t care, not in that moment. 

Seth…

Seth was standing in front of her, just like in one of her dreams. 

Seth. 

He was dressed in black, draped in a long, black coat, looking almost like the hero of a fucking novel.   
Seth, whose hair wasn't much longer than the last time they had seen each other; with just a bit of more gray on his temples and a stubble.

Seth, who was getting close to her. 

Kate took a step back, while the world around her, all of her world faded to a dazzling white, before darkness claimed her, possessed her. 

Her last thoughts, as Seth’s arms caught her, breaking her fall, was that she hadn’t forgotten about him.   
Her last thoughts were of how the feel of his arms around her body was exactly as she recalled: even now it had the power to make her feel safe. She hadn’t forgotten about him, she thought. She recalled every single detail.   
She thought, as her eyes closed that even his scent was the same.

 

* * *

Why was his life, always so fucking complicated?  
Seth Gecko gritted his teeth, cradling the unconscious woman against his chest. 

It had to be a routine patrol, before going to sleep. He had spotted the mother fucker that night when he had seen him going out from a seedy bar, with the chosen victim of the night: the usual blonde bimbo, who should have known better than pick up strangers in a bar. 

He had followed the vampire – because he had known right away he was one, the hair on the back of his neck had stood up, alerting him – and had been ready to thrust the stake into his rotten heart and be done with it for the night. 

Routine patrol his ass! He had come face to face with a girl he had hoped never to see again, after he had fucked up her life for good six years before: Kate Fuller.

He had tried to forget. 

He had spent the first two months after that fateful night at the Titty Twister, totally smashed, uselessly trying to sleep. It had been all for naught…sleep had evaded him. 

He, a killer…had been afraid of the dark.   
He, a killer, had been afraid to close his eyes.   
He, a killer, had spent those two months with his eyes wide open in the dark, getting shit faced, without feeling drunk, without feeling anything except for the fear. 

He had tried to come back to his normal life, but his mind kept blocking, kept coming back to that night…and to Kate. 

He had told her he was a bastard, but not a fucking bastard. He had kept thinking about those words even when, months after he had said them, had started looking for them. He had frenetically started looking for vampires, thinking that just by killing them he’d rest…and surprisingly enough, it had worked. He had been right, for once in his life. 

Once he had killed the first fucker, he had slept like a baby afterwards. 

Killing vampires had become his personal sleeping pill, better than Valium, better than drugs, better than Jack Daniel’s.

He had soon been introduced to another world, a world he hadn’t even imagined it existed, that of vampire killers. It was an underground world; filled with rules he didn’t give a fuck about. It was a world filled with people who didn’t get enough sleep, had too many nightmares, and killed bloodsuckers as if it was the most normal thing in the world. 

He had kept a low profile in the criminal world. He had soon learnt to take whatever he needed from the vampires before he killed them. 

He had traveled all around South America, getting rid of vampires with same coldness, the same efficiency he had used for humans…with a difference, of course: killing humans had been just a side effect of his job, there hadn’t usually been nothing personal in those kills. Killing vampires was fucking personal, instead. Killing vampires had become his job. He had traveled all around South America, before heading to north. 

He often thought about that night at the Titty Twister, about his brother’s death…and the Fullers’.

They were all dead because of him. And of all the deaths he was responsible of, those were the only ones he really cared about. 

He had wondered for a long time whether Kate had made it, if she had succeeded in going home, or if she had sucked on the barrel of the gun she had discarded before he went away on that fucking red-blood car. 

He hadn’t tried to know what had happened to her. It wouldn’t have made sense.   
He had left a girl, alone, in Mexico. 

He had left a girl who had just lost her whole fucking family, pretending to be noble.  
It wouldn’t have made fucking sense. 

And then, a couple of years before, he had started hearing rumors about a girl, who traveled on a old motor home, a girl who scared off even vampire killers, as for cruelty, coldness, ruthlessness 

It hadn’t taken long for him to understand they were all talking about Kate. Even then, though, he hadn’t wanted to know, he hadn’t looked for her…he had tried to stay the hell away from her. 

Until that night. 

He had seen her, while they had both followed the fucker, he had seen her slender body moving as silently as those of vampires, he had seen her impossibly long hair picked up in a ponytail, he had seen her old jeans, and her too large black coat. 

And then he had seen her fighting. The way she had moved, the way she had fought had been fucking brilliant!

The girl had had potential six years before: she had been quick, with good reflexes, but she had been too filled with fear. 

The woman he had seen fighting had been cold, fearless.   
She had reminded him, of himself. 

And then, the son of a bitch of the cat-faced vampire had seemed to have the upper hand, it had been then he had stepped in. 

He had recalled the promise he had made to Jacob Fuller six years before. He had promised the preacher his daughter would be safe. 

Granted, the promise had been about Richie and his intentions toward Kate, but it was just a matter of semantics. Seth Gecko always kept his promises. 

At least, that was what he had been telling to himself, as he had distracted the vampire long enough to allow Kate to kill him. 

Kate’s face when she had turned, after hearing his voice, as he had gotten close to her, had looked too pale, too old…and young, all at the same time. He had kept still, like a moron, as she did the same. 

And then she had fainted. 

He hated it when women fainted…. and hated it even more when it happened in the middle of a deserted road, after killing a vampire. 

He tilted his head down, and although still angry he couldn’t help smiling. He had always had a soft spot for Kate Fuller. 

Not that he had spent the last six years of his life, sighing like fucking lovelorn teenager, or that he had been celibate …what he felt for that girl, was something…that belonged just to him, something he didn’t like to dwell on, something that prompted him to get the hell away from a town when people started talking about the vampire killer who traveled on a Motor Home. 

He walked to his car. He had taken it from a bloodsucker a few weeks before, in one of the countless towns he had been in. He swapped cars as often as possible. The last six years had really taught him about keeping a low profile. 

Fuck, the last six years of his life had taught him about lots of things he’d rather know nothing about!

He could kill vampires in thousands of ways. He knew how long did it take for them to morph, he knew their strengths as much as their weaknesses. He knew vampire’s blood smelled bad and that he had to take at least two showers before getting rid of that shit from his skin. 

He knew that whatever town he was in, whatever hell hole in the middle of nowhere he decided to stop, he could always find vampires…and with them, the vampire killers. 

He knew that vampire killers always looked the same: they were always dressed in black, they were always too pale, their faces were always frenzied, almost as if they had done drugs, and it had been a trip gone bad. 

He wondered, for a second, whether his face too, held the same frantic expression, of people who had seen nightmarish stuff. 

He decided to screw that train of thoughts, before it went too far, as he placed Kate on the passenger seat. He would drop the girl somewhere, maybe in one of the vampire killers’ homes, and he would get the hell away from that town, as fast as humanly possible. 

That was what he told himself, those were the plans formed by his mind, yet, he found himself parking his car in front of the building where he lived…without understanding why.

Just like, without having a clue about his actions, he took her in his arms, and took her home, laying her then on his bed. 

Why did he always have to fuck up his life?

He tilted his head on a side, trying to ease the soreness in his muscles, before slipping off his coat. He kept casting glances to the woman on his bed, while he freed himself from the weapons he always had with him: two guns, his trusty 44 and the special one, the one with bullets on which he carved crosses, before he made them bless by one of the vampire killers priests, then it was the turn of the stakes, that he kept in a special belt, after that he got rid of the two vials of holy water and finally the cross…

If someone had ever told him that one day he would go around carrying a cross in the pocket of his coat, he’d have probably shot the fucker on sight. 

Kate was sound asleep now, she had gone from unconsciousness to sleep and Seth shook his head, as he headed out of his bedroom and went to get a beer from a small portable fridge. 

The apartment he was currently living in was, to put it mildly, a flophouse: a small bedroom, a kitchenette a windowless bathroom and the smallest living room, ever. 

He had chosen it because the landlord hadn’t asked any questions, the neighbors weren’t a pain, and because it was the closest building to the local Church, it made it easier for him to get Holy water. 

He stopped with the bottle in mid air, near his mouth. What the fuck had he turned into? When, exactly, his life had started revolving around vampires and the way to kill them?

He didn’t know. What he knew, was that he had to keep doing it, he had to keep killing them…and not out of the kindness of his heart. He did it for selfish reasons: he killed vampires because it was the only way he had, to get some fucking sleep. 

He killed vampires because if he didn’t, he kept his eyes wide open in the dark…and shadows became monsters. 

If he didn’t kill vampires the shadows became Richie, and his twisted, swollen face. The shadows became Jacob Fuller, whose face, whose look in his eyes, once he had become a vampire, had been the most frightening thing he had ever seen. The shadows became Sex Machine, Santanico Pandemonium.   
If he didn’t kill those fucking bloodsuckers, the shadows became Scott, Kate’s brother, as he was being eaten alive by vampires. 

He had to kill them. He had to kill vampires, or else the shadows became Kate, and her slender body, pressed against his, begging him not to leave her, as vampires were all around them, ready to kill them. 

He had to kill those fucking demons. He had no other choice. Not if he wanted to keep what it was left of his mind, sane. 

Everything else, he realized, had stopped having any real meaning to him. When was the last time he had robbed a bank? When was the last time he had actually killed a human being?

He didn’t remember.   
He gritted his teeth, before drinking from his bottle. 

He would wait for Kate to wake up. He would make sure she didn’t want to faint again, he would point the door at her and tell her to piss off. 

He sat on the old, battered brown couch with a sigh, keeping the bottle in his hands.   
He just had to wait. 

But why…why things were always so fucking complicated?

* * *

 

Sunlight.   
It was sunlight to wake Kate Fuller up. Not that it was exactly something new for her…what was new, was that it wasn’t her bed she was waking into. 

She opened her eyes, and tilted her head up from the pillow; she looked around, knitting her brow for a second. 

Where the hell was she?  
It took her a moment, before the previous night’s events came to her, and when it happened, she couldn’t help gasping. 

Seth.

Seth Gecko had appeared out of nowhere the previous night and he had saved her life, distracting the vampire that was about to feed on her. Out of instinct her hand went up to her neck, and although she rationally knew she hadn’t been bitten, she couldn’t help sighing in relief. 

She had fainted. She had dropped like a sack of potato.  
Kate Fuller had never fainted. Ever. 

She hadn’t fainted when her mother had died; she hadn’t fainted when Seth and Ritchie had aimed their guns at her, and although being scared out of her mind, she hadn’t fainted when her life had been fucked up that night at the Titty Twister. 

She had been alone for the last six years of her life, she had fought, and she had never fainted. Zoning out to go catching butterflies in her mind, yes. Fainting? Nope…no way. Not her. Never.   
Until the previous night.

What the fuck had gotten into her, the previous night? She thought she had stopped being the damsel in distress six years before…instead she had fucking fainted!

She shook her head. It didn’t matter, it had happened, and she had learnt long ago not to cry over spilled milk. 

She tilted her head down, noticing she was still dressed, the only things missing were her weapons, her coat and boots, which she spotted right away on a chair next to the bed. 

Not that she was surprised. Seth Gecko was a killer, a bastard, but in a way…he was a gentleman.   
Even when things had gone to hell, that fateful night, she had felt safe with him. 

The shadow of smile formed on her lips as she got up from her bed, and she couldn’t help blinking in surprise when she realized two things: she had slept, all night long, without nightmares. And she was hungry!

Kate was really hungry…for the first time in a very long time. For the past six years, part of the discipline she had imposed on herself, had been about food. She had to be strong; she couldn’t afford the luxury to skip meals, not if she wanted to be efficient. The fact that food turned her stomach, that she didn’t even feel its taste, was just a minor detail for her. 

She put on her shoes, while she still smiled. It was strange to smile, after all that time. It was strange to feel her lips stretching…in a smile and not, as she had gotten used to, in grimaces of pain after her training or patrols.

She stood still for a few seconds, while she tried to decide whether to take her gun or not. Eventually she decided to take it. That gun had been her best friend for the past six years; the only object that had real value to her, more than once it had saved her life.

And besides, it had been Seth’s. 

She got out from the little bedroom, only to stop in her tracks, when she saw Seth: he was sleeping on a couch, his feet on a chair, his head tilted down.   
Now that she could see him more clearly, she noticed how pale he looked. It was almost as if he hadn’t been spending a lot of time under the sun. Kate had noticed the two guns, the special belt with a few stakes in it; she had seen a cross, as well. It was half hidden under his black coat. Was it possible…. that he too hunted vampires?

She took another step into the room, and started when Seth leapt on his feet, producing from seemingly nowhere a small gun and aiming it at her. 

“Fuck, Kate, I was about to shoot you!” He said. 

Kate arched an eyebrow. “And good morning to you too, Seth” She said. 

Seth blinked once twice, before he put the gun away.

Kate took another step, getting close to him. She had dreamed that moment for six years, despite herself. She had hoped for six years to see him again…and now that she was in the same room with him, she couldn’t say a word. 

She wanted to hit him, for leaving her alone, after fucking up her life.   
She wanted to throw herself into his arms and kiss him, until she was breathless. Until they both were.   
She wanted to thank him for saving her life, the night before. 

But her voice refused to cooperate. She couldn’t say a word.   
Her body refused to move. She stood still, looking at him.   
She cleared her throat, and still couldn’t talk, the words just wouldn’t come out. 

It was Seth who talked, he did it, as he went to the kitchenette and asked, “Slept well?”

Kate lightly nodded, shaking herself out of her momentary numbness. “I did….” She said. She stifled her hands in her jeans’ pockets while she added, “Thank you…for yesterday…you know, for…”

Seth arched his brows, saying, “I was in the neighborhood…”

“Isn’t Canada a bit far from El Rey?” She asked.

Seth shrugged his shoulders, as he took a pack of chocolate covered snacks from a cupboard and opened it and threw a couple of them at her. She smiled when she noticed the light smile on Seth’s lips when he saw how effortlessly she had grabbed the snacks. 

“El Rey wasn’t that great…” He said after a second, and there wasn’t trace of smile on his face or in his eyes while he said those words. He took a couple of snacks as well and came back to the small living room. 

Kate slowly chewed on the first of her snacks, savoring its sweet taste, after a second she murmured: “It looked like it was the most important thing in the world for you”

Seth’s eyes became darker for a second, he discarded his snack, throwing it on a table and said, “Life is fucking strange, you know?”

Kate toyed with the snack’s wrapper while she said, “Tell me about it…”

Silence. Again. Kate didn’t know whether to shoot the man between his eyes or close the distance between them and kiss him senseless. 

There had been men for the past six years. There had been men she had fucked on the backseats of cars, pickups or in motel rooms’ beds. There had been quick fucks, with faceless men. She had just known their bodies, for a few hours, without strings, without being attached to anyone. 

There had been quick fucks that in her mind hadn’t been very different from her sessions of training. She had needed them to keep dreams and nightmares away, to spend the hours that separated her from the night and the hunt. Had she wanted those men? She wasn’t sure about that. 

Did she want Seth?

Yes. She did…she wanted him…but she couldn’t afford that luxury, so she put those thoughts aside, especially when Seth casually said, “So…you’re a vampire killer?”

Kate shrugged her shoulders. “Yep…” she just said. 

She sat on the couch and was surprised when Seth took some steps and sat next to her while he asked, “Why?”

“Why not?” She asked in return. 

Seth looked at her as if she had grown a second head…or a third eye right in the middle of her brow. 

“Because…” He started, but didn’t continue, he tilted his hands up and shook his head. 

“It wasn’t what I wanted…” She started, but stopped in mid sentence. How could she explain that to him? Maybe he had thought that she had gone home, that she had come back to the States, finished school…and she had thought about it as well, for a few hours, until dusk came. Things changed, though, when she found herself fighting against other vampires, royally pissed off at her for what had happened the night before.  
Somehow they had known she had been involved in what had happened…and had wanted to make her pay. 

She didn’t remember what had exactly happened that night. It was still a blur to her. She just knew that after that night, fighting vampires had been the only thing that made sense to her, the only thing she was really good at. The only thing she wanted to do. 

“What about you?” She asked, instead. 

Seth blinked and asked, “What about me?”

“Do you always go around carrying stakes and a cross, or you just happen to have them handy?”

Seth tilted his head on a side, she saw him tightening his jaw before saying in a low voice, “I hate those mother fuckers…”   
Seth had uttered those words matter-of-factly, as if they explained everything. 

And incredibly enough they did. It took her just a look, to grasp details that she had missed, details of Seth’s face, on which there were lines damn similar to hers. They were lines caused by too many patrols, too many nightmares, and too much fear. 

“I’ve been in El Rey for a few months…once the local vampires were toast, I managed to leave town…and started looking for them elsewhere…”

Kate nodded at the man’s words. She recalled the way Seth had fought that night, how he had refused to give up, until the very end. She recalled the way she had hung onto him for dear life, while they were surrounded by vampires. 

He had left her, driving away on a red car, only to keep doing what he had started that night…just like she had done. 

Yep she thought life *is* fucking strange

“That’s why you’re here in Canada?” She asked. 

“I heard about a very big colony,” He explained. 

Kate smiled, for a second, before saying, “Me too…I’ve come here a few days ago…so far, no traces of it, though…”

Seth curtly nodded at her words. “Getting there has been a bitch, and to make it worse, so far?” He shrugged his shoulders adding, “nada de nada.”

When later on, Kate thought about that morning, she mostly recalled how Seth and she had talked, for hours, about their experiences for the past six years, about the vampires they had killed, the places they had gone to…about their favorite weapons. 

She recalled, later on, that they had both smiled. A lot. 

She recalled that she had thought that they had been two lonely people, for damn too long…and that they had both felt, for the first time in a very long time, home. 

* * *  
He should have sent her away.   
He should have been a fucking bastard and tell her to get the hell away from him. 

He hadn’t. He was looking at Kate as she examined his weapons acting like the pro she was with them, while he fastened his special belt. 

He should have sent her on her way; instead, he had spent all day long with her. He had sat on a couch, whose springs had tattooed his ass, after he had been sitting for hours on it, and he had talked…just talked to Kate, only to realize he hadn’t talked a lot for the past six years. 

Not that he had been a blabbermouth before, but there had always been someone…Richie, or an inmate, or even Jacob Fuller to talk to. 

After the Titty Twister he had been alone…or with women he hadn’t chosen to chatter with. 

No one knew about what he did at nights, except for the vampire killers and they were people he didn’t like to talk to. They all had some morbid, tearjerker back-story they all liked to share, they all felt like crusaders on a mission, and they were generally too nuts to have a decent conversation. 

He had talked to Kate because there hadn’t been the need to waste words with her, because she had been there, with him, when it had all started.  
She understood why he fought vampires. She understood, because she felt the same things. 

Kate had changed: six years spent fighting vampires had hardened her, the steel in her, which had already been there, although not so pronounced, was now clear in everything she did. 

Kate Fuller’s gaze was cold, it was almost as if ice sparkled in her hazel eyes, yet Seth had glimpsed the fire within her. There had been fire, dancing in the way her lips had curled up in shadows of smiles, which never really reached her eyes. He had glimpsed the fire, trapped behind the thick ice’s walls she used to protect herself. 

Kate had talked like a man, she had drunk like a man, she had inspected his weapons like a man…and yet at the same time, her full lips had curled up in mischievous smiles or pouts.

Six years before he had tried to be noble. El Rey was hell on Earth…he wouldn’t have condemned Kate to that. He had known she would have fallen into his arms…and it would have been fucking wrong. He had seen the movie, read the book…it would have been a disaster. 

And besides, when he had left her, he had really thought he would be able to put that nightmare behind him.   
He was Seth Gecko, for fuck’s sake!   
He wouldn’t let bloodsuckers fuck up his life more than they had already done!

Seth Gecko wouldn’t have allowed a kid who had lost her family to hang around with him, as a memento that he was supposed to go to El Rey with his brother…and his brother was dead. He had been the one to stake him…he had seen him liquefy, and the only things left of the son of a bitch had been his arms and his skull. 

Seth Gecko hadn’t needed anyone; he had always been good at managing things on his own. 

Bullshit. 

It had all been a bunch of bullshit!

At least, that was what he was thinking in that moment, while he still wondered, though, why he hadn’t told Kate to go away…and why they were about to patrol together. 

And what was going to happen afterwards? Kate Fuller wasn’t a kid any more…and he was still a man. Not to mention the fact that he had a soft spot for her…he always had…probably ever since she had saved his ass in the motor home’s bathroom, six years before. 

He snorted, ignoring Kate’s glance, and decided to take things as they came. First they were going to stake some vampires all the way to hell, and then he would think about the rest. That was…if one of the vampires didn’t kill them first. 

Seth didn’t delude himself into thinking that kind of life could last forever. He didn’t particularly care about living forever. The only thing he cared about, was going down fighting. He wondered whether Kate thought the same. 

“Do you already know where to go?” He asked a few minutes later, as they headed outside the apartment. 

Kate shrugged. “There is this bar in the outskirts of town. I wanted to go there, before leaving town…”

“How many?” He asked. 

“Twenty…give or take” She answered. 

Seth blinked. Twenty vampires…plus casualties as patrons killed when the real party began.   
He smiled: “Looks like fun. You sure it’s vampires?”

“No, Seth…they’re psychos. Psychos that morph into ugly fucks when they get hungry” She replied with a half smile 

 

He smiled, again, at the girl’s words and said, “Let’s take a look around, I don’t want to bullshit around…”

Kate curtly nodded at his words. Seth saw that she was refraining from talking, probably to object at something he had said. She had worked on her own for years, and if the reputation she had made for herself was true – and he had no reasons to believe otherwise – that wasn’t going to be the first time for her, yet, she let him take the lead. 

Just like that night. 

“After we take a look around,” He said, surprised by the gentle tone of his voice, “We’re gonna have a hell of a party with those fucks…”

Kate looked at him, surprised, but didn’t comment on his words. 

They were outside his building now, Seth showed her his car, it was an old Ford, which looked like it had seen much better days, and she shook her head as she got in. 

“What?” He asked getting in the car as well. 

“You told me about keeping a low profile, I didn’t think you would push it that far…”

There had been a time, where he would have reacted with anger at those words, instead he found himself smiling. 

Great! When exactly had he become Mr. Nice guy? What was he slowly turning into?  
Rather…what had he become, without even paying attention?

That wasn’t the moment to think about that kind of personal stuff. He had to clear his mind and do it quickly. He couldn’t allow himself to lose his cool, not when he was about to kill vampires. A whole bar filled with vampires. 

He cast a glance at Kate: her face was somber, the ice in her eyes thick and impenetrable, the girl turned and looked at him for a second and Seth was surprised when he realized that she had probably reached the same conclusions he had. 

First there were vampires to kill.   
Then they would think about the two of them.

* * *  
As much as it sounded crazy even to herself, Kate loved feeling her body aching after her patrols. Not that she was one of those people who was into pain as a form of pleasure…but there was something inherently satisfying in the bruises, in the aching muscles…it all meant she had done a good job. 

And that night she had done a marvelous fucking good job, at least judging by how much her shoulders and legs hurt. 

Seth looked at her and said, “You should go to the hospital…”

They were in his car, Seth was driving, it was dawning. They had killed all the vampires, each and every one of them: twenty-five vampires were now toast, courtesy of Seth and she; the bar was now a flaming pile of rubble. 

Kate knew that she had to get the hell away from that town. She always left town after nights like that. It was too dangerous to stay…and besides, once the job was over, what was the point in staying?

“Right…” She murmured, “I can really see myself saying how I hurt myself to a doc…no way, Seth…”

Seth looked tired and injured as well: a big, ugly looking bruise was forming on his chin, and there was one smaller on the jaw, blood was making his hair darker and was crusting on his hands and neck. Kate tilted her head on a side and said, “I’m fine…I just need a hot shower…”

“Make it two showers,” He said in a low voice. 

Kate knitted her brows, without talking, Seth looked at her and added, “I always take two showers…vampires’ blood is…”

“Shitty as hell?” She finished for him. 

Seth nodded and Kate took a look around, noticing they were now outside Seth’s building. 

She thought. 

She had spent twenty-four hours with Seth…. she had fainted and he had caught her fall, she had slept in his bed, she had talked to him, fought alongside with him…what was going to happen now?

Was he going to ask her to go upstairs with him? Were they going to take a shower together? Was he going to tell her to get the hell away from him, already? 

She side glanced at him, noticing that he looked like he was lost in thought.

Was it possible that he was having doubts as well? Was it possible that he too, was wondering about what they were going to do?

* * *  
One of the things that had allowed Seth Gecko to survive had been his cold blood, his ability to take decisions in matter of seconds. His being a son of a bitch had allowed him to go vampire hunting without losing his cool, his being a son of a bitch had allowed him to ram a stake into his brother’s chest without missing a beat, without shedding a tear.

He had always been proud of that part of his nature…too bad it looked like it had disappeared for the past minutes. 

Seth Gecko didn’t have a clue about what to do!

He had fought alongside Kate all night long…and he had found out that he had missed having someone who covered his back…and someone to watch over. 

Kate was a fucking awesome fighter and as he had discovered that night, she was damn sexy too while she fought.   
Under any other circumstances he would have already taken Kate home or, maybe, they wouldn’t have left his apartment at all that night. Under any other circumstance he wouldn’t have spent a whole day talking to a woman… and sure as hell he wouldn’t be sitting in his car, trying to decide what to do. 

Problem was that it wasn’t a normal circumstance…not only because he had spent the night fighting vampires, but also because she had done that with the only living human being he gave a shit about.

He had spent years getting away from her. He wasn’t a coward…or, at least, he had never thought of himself as one. He looked at death right in the eyes, he always had, he had never turned his back to a challenge, yet, in that moment, he felt like the biggest wimp on Earth. 

Sure, he could ask Kate if she wanted to go upstairs with him, in the rat hole he called his home. They might even have sex – because he had no doubts about her wanting him as well…he might be a wimp…but he wasn’t blind – and probably it would be the best fuck of his life…and then what? What was going to happen afterwards?

What was really throwing him for a loop was the fact that he was considering an “afterwards” for the two of them. Since when he had so many doubts before having sex? 

“Seth?” Kate said. Although she had talked in a low voice it had been enough to break his train of thoughts, for which he was grateful. 

He turned toward her, noticing the lines around her eyes. She did look dead on her feet. 

He arched his eyebrows, without talking, Kate sighed before saying, “Look. I need that shower…and a couple of Tylenols…can I crash at your house?”

If Kate had something else in mind as she talked, she was good…really good at hiding it.

Later on, when Seth thought back about that moment, about that morning, he recalled how he had thought for a nanosecond to send her away, to tell her to piss off, and how he had ignored those thoughts. 

He recalled how he had just shrugged his shoulders and had smiled, before getting out from his car, only to be immediately followed by Kate. 

He recalled how he had suddenly felt unexplainably happy.

* * *  
Despite what she had told Seth, once they had entered his house, Kate had let Seth use the shower first. The man had looked at her and had shaken his head, before leaving the room. 

Kate needed time to think… she needed time to calm down the frantic beating of her heart. It was strange, she could kill vampires without breaking a sweat, without batting an eyelash, and yet in that very moment she could feel her heart in her throat…and she was scared. 

In the end, in the car, she had found the guts to talk. She had watched Seth for a few seconds, instinctively sensing his doubts, and she had done the only thing she could think about: she had decided for the both of them. 

She snorted while she looked around and started to take off her coat, clenching her jaws in pain. Her shoulders and back hurt. A lot. 

The mother fuckers they had killed that night had been strong, she was sure she had huge bruises all over her, and a couple of gashes on her back, she even knew how and when it had happened…it had been when one of those bloodsuckers had thrown her on a pin ball machine, with such a strength that the glass had broken, cutting her. 

She hated it when she had to literally bend backwards to mend her wounds, but she rarely, if ever, went asking for help. She only did that when her wounds were more serious, when it happened, she usually went to one of the vampire killers’ doctors – because there was always one among them – and she let them stitch her up. 

She sighed as she sat on the couch and took off her boots. She was tired. Usually after a night like that, she would start the Motor Home, drive to the nearest town and crash in a motel room, where she would sleep for a couple of days…she didn’t know what would happen that time.   
She closed her eyes, resting her head against the couch’s headrest. What the hell was going to happen?

“Oh, fuck it!” She said between gritted teeth, and was surprised when she heard Seth’s laughter. She slowly opened her eyes, while without even realizing that, her lips stretched in a smile. 

Seth was in front of her, wearing just black jeans, his hair was wet with the shower he had just taken and Kate noticed the constellation of bruises on his shoulders, arms and torso, and his impressive collection of scars: some of them looked old, other more recent were on his shoulders and chest and she noticed how one of them, quite long, was half hidden between the flames of the huge tribal tattoo that covered his left shoulder and arm. 

Seth was still smiling when Kate slowly got on her feet, clamping her jaw shut not to let out the moan of pain that was about to slip out from her mouth. 

“Is there any hot water left?” She asked, as she passed next to him. 

“Knock yourself out, sugar…” He said. 

Kate stopped, arching an eyebrow at him. “Thank you,” She said, her voice barely more than a whisper. 

They were so close now; there were just a few inches between them. It took her just a step, to close the distance between them and shyly touch Seth’s lips with hers. 

It all happened so quickly that he didn’t have time to say a word or move, she covered the few meters that separated her from the bathroom in record time, and then closed the door behind her shoulders. Only then did she let out a breath she didn’t even realize she had held. 

* * *  
What the fuck was he doing, standing still in front of the bathroom’s door, while Kate was on the other side?  
Why the hell had he been looking at that fucking door like a moron for the past five minutes?

He had been a bastard once, a motherfucker, a thief, a killer. He had spent years in prison, gaining the respect and the fear of other inmates. He had been the real deal. 

What the hell was he doing now, a forty something ex con, looking at a bathroom door, while on the other side there was a twenty-two woman taking a shower?

Why wasn’t he kicking that door open and reach Kate under the shower?  
Why was he ready to get out of his own skin for the excitement?

It had been just a kiss…there hadn’t even been tongue!  
It had been a fucking peck on the lips!

He had to think…he had to stop the blood from heading south, give himself an energetic shake of the shoulders, get into that fucking bathroom and end that madness! And he didn’t care whether that madness ended in a blood bath or in a fuck!

That, at least, was what he had kept saying to himself for the past five minutes…. then why wasn’t he kicking that door open?

He was a killer, a thief, a bastard…not a fucking boy scout!

Keeping that in mind, he took a step back, ready to kick the door open, when his senses, completely alerted, caught a moan coming from the other room. It was Kate! Kate was swearing under her breath when she wasn’t moaning in pain. 

He didn’t hesitate that time when with a swift kick, he opened the bathroom’s door. It would have been, oh so fucking great, if the girl had slipped in the shower stall while he, in the other room was too busy brooding over a peck on the lips, like a fucking school boy, to notice!

He couldn’t help crossing his brow, when, once he got into the bathroom he saw Kate: she was fresh from her shower, naked except for her panties, her body was covered with bruises, she was looking in the mirror above the sink and was unsuccessfully trying to clean two ugly looking gashes on her back. 

Although surprise was clear on her face, Kate didn’t talk; she just looked at him, knitting her eyebrows. 

“What the hell are you doing?” Seth asked, his hands on his hips. 

He felt like an idiot.   
A worried idiot.   
An excited idiot. 

Kate’s shoulders slumped and, for just one second, she reminded him of the teenager she had once been, before he fucked her life up. 

Kate, whose long hair, still wet, was covering her shoulders and breasts, wasn’t even trying to cover herself. Seth could see the bruises and marks on her slender body. They didn’t particularly impress him. He had his own share of scars collected through the years, and there were new bruises covering his body that morning. He wasn’t impressed. He wasn’t disgusted. He was…furious!

Why the fuck didn’t she tell him about the cuts on her back?

How the hell did she plan on cleaning them?

He took a step forward and wordlessly knelt behind her, but first he took the wet washcloth from her hands, it was dirty with blood, she had already used it to try and clean her wounds. 

Kate started when Seth placed the wet cloth on her back: the gashes weren’t that deep, she wasn’t going to need stitches, but they had probably bled a lot.   
There were other scars on her back and her shoulders, some were new, others, which looked older, were definitely lashing marks. 

He gritted his teeth. He didn’t want to know who…or what had done that to her, because he knew, with absolute certainty, that if the fucker was still alive, he would hunt him down and emasculate him… and he didn’t want to think about how primal his instinct to protect Kate was. 

He couldn’t. 

He got on his feet and wordlessly left the bathroom, heading to his bedroom where he took an old, black, backpack. Inside the backpack there was quite a vast assortment of medicines and disinfectants; the stuff he kept in his bathroom wasn’t but a small part of all the ER shit he had collected over the years. 

When he went back to the bathroom, Kate was still standing, she had just rested her hips against the sink, the only difference was that she had picked her hair up and was crossing her arms over her chest…her still naked chest.

He stopped at the doorstep, arching his brows, while Kate kept her head down, only when he got close to her did she tilt her head up saying, “Clothes are gone…”

“I kinda noticed that” He said. 

He was in front of her, and for the life of him, he couldn’t understand why he was trying his best not to look at her from the neck down. What the fuck was his problem, again?

He refrained from gritting his teeth out of frustration, instead he settled for gesturing her to turn around. And why did he care so much about two fucking cuts on her back? They weren’t the first she got, and wouldn’t be the last, at least not as long as she kept killing vampires. 

_He thought._

_He blinked his eyes while, just like it had happened a few minutes before, he got on his knees behind the girl._

____

__He rummaged into his backpack, while he tried to ignore his train of thoughts._ _

__

__He started to disinfect the gashes on her back with some betadine, stopping only when Kate started, more out of surprise than pain._ _

__He had seen her that night. Kate was a fighter, and a good one at that, pain didn’t seem to mind to her, she just gritted her teeth and kept going…in that way they were similar._ _

__Seth Gecko didn’t believe in guilt, he didn’t believe in brooding over things past…he’d have lost his mind a long time ago if he had…long before the events at the Titty Twister._ _

__Yet, that morning, in that bathroom, after a night spent fighting vampires alongside a young woman who had once had a family…and a scar less body and soul, for the first time in his life, he felt guilty._ _

__That enlightenment didn’t shatter him; it didn’t make him cry…or scream. He was a mother-fucking bastard, he would always be. His hands trembled, though, for a second or two, and his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat._ _

__He tended Kate’s wounds the best he could, without even realizing how gentle his gestures had become, at first. When he did, there was another enlightenment in his life, a moment of absolute clarity, like nothing he had experienced before._ _

__His heart didn’t speed up its beating, the world around him kept going, as if nothing had happened…but while he got on his feet and handed a bottle of painkillers to Kate, he knew without a doubt that something had changed. He knew that the only thing that really mattered to him was to protect Kate._ _

__The only thing he was sure of was that Kate had sneaked inside of him, for the duration._ _

__He wouldn’t run away that time. Not from her. Not from himself._ _

__Seth Gecko loved Kate Fuller_ _

__* * *_ _

__Seth was too quiet. He hadn’t said a word ever since he had knelt behind her to tend her wounds. Kate didn’t know what to think._ _

__At first she had been relieved when Seth hadn’t looked disgusted by the scars on her body. She didn’t usually care one way or another…the scars were there, they weren’t going to vanish anytime soon, she had gotten used to them, yet, when the man had entered the bathroom kicking the door open, Kate had feared he would judge her…or even worse, he’d be disgusted.  
It didn’t happen. Seth had just taken the cloth from her hands; he had knelt behind her and had started cleaning her wounds. Without uttering a sound. _ _

__That was when Kate had stopped understanding what the hell was going on!_ _

__Seth had gotten on his feet, had left the bathroom only to come back bringing with him an old backpack filled with medicines; he hadn’t even looked at her, he hadn’t said a word about her being nude, he hadn’t even really looked, he had made a point not to look at her from the neck down. He had knelt again and had started to disinfect her wounds…and even then, he hadn’t talked, he hadn’t said a fucking word, as she held her breath._ _

__Then for a few seconds, or maybe she had just imagined it, Seth’s hands had lightly shaken, and when he had later bandaged her wounds his touch had been soft, gentle…caring, almost._ _

__She knew Seth’s touch, she recalled the way he used his hands, she had seen the previous night Seth ripping the rotten hearts of vampires out bare handed.  
She had seen how his hands had become as lethal as the other weapons he used to kill vampires. _ _

__Yet…those same hands had softly grazed her skin a few minutes before._ _

__Seth hadn’t said a word, not a single word. It had been a few minutes since he had left the bathroom and Kate was confused…and was getting cold._ _

__She turned, taking a look at her reflected image in the mirror, lightly blinking. Was it really her? She didn’t like mirrors; she didn’t like wasting her time in front of them…she didn’t want to._ _

__Yet she couldn’t help it now. Who was that woman with a tired face, with a bruise on a cheek and lines around her eyes and mouth?_ _

__Who was that girl, that despite being tired, despite being in pain and confused, had eyes sparkling with excitement?_ _

__She was still looking in the mirror when she saw Seth entering the bathroom and she couldn’t help noticing he had put on a black sweater over his jeans; he was holding something in his hands, and she couldn’t help blinking in surprise when she realized what it was: clothes. Seth shrugged his shoulders and said, “I found these…they should fit.”_ _

__Kate turned to face him and despite being still confused she couldn’t help smiling when she saw the black tee shirt and shorts Seth handed her._ _

__“Thank you” She said. They wouldn’t fit, she was sure of that, but somehow that gesture had moved her. Trust Seth Gecko to confuse her even more by doing something nice for her._ _

__Seth tilted his head on a side, narrowing his eyes for a second, and still he didn’t talk. Neither of them talked for a few seconds, while she hugged the clothes he had given her against her chest, and Seth had his hands on his hips. She managed a little smile and said, “I’d better get dressed…”_ _

__Seth nodded and Kate thought he looked unsure whether to stay or not in the bathroom with her.  
What the hell was going on in his mind?_ _

__Seth anyway, looked like he had made his decision: he left the bathroom and Kate scratched her head, even more confused, before putting on the tee shirt and the shorts. She hadn’t been wrong, the clothes didn’t fit, they were too large for her, at least the tee shirt was, but they were clean…and they were dry._ _

__She hadn’t really had a master plan when she had asked Seth if she could crash at his house. She had known he had doubts, but if she had to be honest, the only thing that had really mattered to her, was not to be alone._ _

__She had been alone for six, long, years. She had accepted that loneliness, she had used it as her shield, her weapon, it had been a security net for her. She had gotten used it, so much that she had wanted to forget what it was like not to be so fucking lonely._ _

__Seth was the only person in the world she gave a damn about…and she just hadn’t been ready to give up on him. Not yet._ _

__Yet, of all the scenarios she had made up in her mind, despite not wanting to, over the years, of all the dreams she had had for the past six years, of all the things that could have happened once they had gotten inside his house…the last thing she could have ever imagined was Seth’s silence, that blank, unreadable stare. Not to mention his gentle touch while he tended her wounds…or the fact that he had *cared* enough to tend her wounds.  
That had been unexpected, to say the least. _ _

__She snorted while she left the bathroom and stopped just outside of it, when she saw Seth lying on the couch, his arms folded behind his head, as he was staring wide eyed at the ceiling_ _

__“Seth?” She asked, taking a step forward toward him._ _

__Seth didn’t look at her but he said in a low voice, “I couldn’t sleep anymore.”_ _

__Kate knitted her brows, she had no troubles imagining what he was talking about…what she didn’t understand was why he was talking about that. To her._ _

__They had talked a lot the previous day, about all kind of stuff, except for the night at the Titty Twister. They had danced around the subject, there had been lots of “you knows” …but none of them had really talked about it._ _

__What was the point in talking about that night? She had though the previous day; they both knew what had happened, they had been both there. Why losing their breath over that?_ _

__Instead Seth was talking, and she was the one who couldn’t say a word, now._ _

__“I spent two months getting shit faced, to get some fucking sleep…it didn’t work. Not at nights…and just for a few minutes.”_ _

__Kate took another step toward him and Seth still not looking at her, moved his legs aside silently inviting her to sit next to him. Kate sat on the couch, and still didn’t talk._ _

__Truth was she was almost afraid to speak. And Kate hated it when she was afraid._ _

__“I’ve killed a fucking lot of people, Kate…. I tried not to when I could, but fact is I’ve had my fair share of blood and guts on my hands…” Seth kept quiet for a second, his head tilted up, his legs on the back of the couch. He still wasn’t looking at her. He was still staring up at the ceiling._ _

__Kate wondered whether he was going to look at her, or if he was going to keep looking up, to keep staring at that fucking ceiling with those hideous stains of humidity as if it contained all the answers of the universe._ _

__“And I’ve never had any problems sleeping.” Seth said, “and then the night after…when I already was in El Rey, I couldn’t sleep. I was past the point of being tired…and I couldn’t sleep. I first thought it was just adrenaline, I thought it was because of…Richie” Seth blinked his eyes when he said his brother’s name. That was the first time he had mentioned his name, Kate noticed._ _

__Seth shook his head and continued, “For two fucking months, after that night, I couldn’t sleep to save my life. For two fucking months I’ve drowned all kind of shit, chewed on Valium as if it was candy…and my eyes were always wide open… ”_ _

__Kate rested her shoulders against the couch’s back, next to Seth’s legs when he stopped talking; she realized her hands were shaking and started playing with the hem of the shirt to cover it, Seth though still wasn’t looking at her._ _

__Seth was still looking at the ceiling, without talking, he looked very tired, and the look in his eyes was still blank, his eyes were dark pools that were scaring her. For the first time in a very long time she was scared._ _

__She wasn’t scared of Seth, though. She was scared for him, for the abyss he kept locked inside. She wondered whether he had ever shed a tear for his brother’s death or whether, just like her, she had pushed back all the pain and had pretended it had burned together with the Titty Twister._ _

__“I thought I had finally lost it” Seth said in a low voice, “so one night I went out…and looked for them. I remember thinking that if there had been those vampires someone had made them…and if there were others I would find them…and kill them…so maybe I’d get some sleep…or die trying. I didn’t care one way or another at that point…”_ _

__Kate blinked at Seth’s words, she reached out her hand to touch him, but she let it immediately fall, fearing it might upset Seth, fearing he would stop talking if she touched him._ _

__Seth was bitterly smiling when he continued, “I found them alright! They were in a hell hole like the Titty Twister, they only wanted fags there…”_ _

___Kate smiled as well, but her smile faded when Seth said: “There were lots of them…not as many as that night, but there were enough. It was what I needed.  
I killed them all…and you know what? When I got home I fucking slept all day. When I woke up the next day I could barely move, but I had rested.   
Seth Gecko was back, ready to fucking kick back in El Rey…” _

__Seth ran a hand through his hair and said, “Guess what, Kate? It lasted two days…and then I was back to square one…staring up at the ceiling of my bedroom, with a bottle of Jack’s in a hand and the fucking TV. remote in the other…”_ _

__Seth tilted his head down, looking at her for the first time since she had entered the room. “That’s why I fight them. I kill vampires to get some sleep…or else my mind starts playing tricks on me. My mind tries to fuck me…and no one can fuck Seth Gecko, Kate” His lips curled up in a sly smile while he added, “Unless, of course, I want to…”_ _

__Seth slowly got in a sitting position and Kate had refrain herself from startling when their shoulders touched.  
“Why…” She started. She stopped and swallowed before asking, “Why are you telling me?”_ _

__Seth laughed, and it was a real laughter, not a desperate one, as one would expect. And Kate realized that when he laughed he almost looked like the man she had known six years before, the man she had drunk whiskey with, the man she had fought alongside with while her world crumbled down all around her._ _

__“I’ll be damned if I know why!” He said. “I’ll be damned if I fucking understand why…” He added in a low voice._ _

__“I wanted to go home,” Kate said. It was funny how easily the words were coming out of her mouth, now. “I really wanted to. I wanted to get to the border, I wanted to ask where the nearest airport was and use the money you had given me to go home”_ _

__“What happened?” He asked. “Why didn’t you?”_ _

__Kate shrugged her shoulders: “Contrary to you I couldn’t keep my eyes open, I started the Motor Home, drove for a couple of miles and had to stop…” She tilted her head down and added, “I fell asleep…like an idiot!”_ _

__She shook her head, pushing away the memories even before they came and turned her head to look at Seth while she said, “I woke up at dusk…”_ _

__“Shit…” Was Seth’s only comment._ _

__Kate nodded at Seth’s words and said, “I started the camper, but didn’t get very far…”_ _

__“Vampires?” He asked._ _

__“Yes. Lots and lots of them, they were pissed off…and I only had a cross and two guns with me. I think one of them was Richie’s, I found it in the bathroom.  
Anyway, I drove over some of them; I shot at two of them, and fought the others. One of them eventually got inside…and there was another…” she let out a soft sigh and added, “the son of a bitch had a lash…” She stopped talking, when she saw Seth almost imperceptibly flinching at her words. _ _

__She had stopped talking, now, not because she didn’t want to tell the rest of the story, but because her recollections basically stopped there. Everything that had happened afterwards was a blur to her and she didn’t know whether she wanted to recall._ _

__“How did you…?” Seth started and Kate quickly interrupted him saying, “I don’t really remember, Seth. I remember being afraid…I remember being angry. I remember thinking I didn’t want to die like that…in that Motor Home. I remember thinking that I didn’t want to become a vampire. All I have are flashes of me kicking and screaming and punching, and smashing furniture…but aside for that…” She shrugged her shoulders and repeated, “Aside from that I don’t remember anything. All I know is that sometime later…I was alone, holding the lash in my hands.”_ _

__She didn’t add that the lash had made her stomach turn, because it was dirty with her blood and flesh, that she had thrown up bile, for what it had seemed like hours, or that she had spent hours under the shower trying to get rid of all the blood._ _

__“I’m sorry” Seth said in a low voice and once again he wasn’t looking at her._ _

__He wasn’t looking at her…just like that morning, before leaving her on her own. Unlike that fateful morning, though, Kate wasn’t angry or disappointed. Unlike that morning, Kate believed in Seth’s words. It was clear in the tone of his voice that he was really sorry._ _

__“Why didn’t you go to the airport?” He asked. “You should have gone home…”_ _

__“To do what, Seth? They would’ve locked me up in a padded cell. No one would ever believe me…”_ _

__Seth arched an eyebrow, “You could have lied…”_ _

__Kate shook her head, “The point is I didn’t want to go home. There was nothing there for me, any more…I got to the border…and went back…” She weakly smiled before adding, “I guess we thought the same thing: someone had to have made those bastards…if I had met those, I would met other of them…and I’d kill them.”_ _

__“Truth is those mother fuckers bit us too that night” He commented._ _

__Kate lightly blinked at those words, she realized that while she was talking, Seth had drooped an arm around her shoulders and she hadn’t even noticed. She shook her head and asked, “What do you mean?”_ _

__“They bit us inside…in our souls” Seth shook his head, smiling: “I didn’t even believe in all this crap!” his smile faded when he added, “they changed us, Kate. Don’t get me wrong: I’m still a thief, I’m still a killer…it’s just I’ve changed customers…I steal from the vampires I kill…”_ _

__“I do that too…” She admitted._ _

__Seth smiled and deadpanned, “I kinda got it when I saw you smashing the cash register before we left the bar …”_ _

__Kate shrugged her shoulders; she was about to add something, when Seth’s lips suddenly covered hers._ _

__They stood still for a second; they were close to each other, so much that Kate could feel the warmth of Seth’s body through the fabric of his clothes, so much that the man’s scent was invading her nostrils and her heart was hammering in her chest, stronger than it had ever done._ _

__She had always thought in the fantasies that, despite everything, she had had over the years that being kissed by Seth would have been like being drained, that it could have never been gentle._ _

__She had got it all wrong._ _

__Seth’s lips were warm, as he scattered gentle, feather like kisses on her lips, gently inviting her to open them up and she couldn’t help but to happily oblige._ _

__He was taking her breath away, as their tongues sought each other and languidly started dancing together, and at the same time she could feel Seth’s right hand, grazing her face and his thumbs tracing circles on her cheek._ _

__She felt Seth’s arm tightening her at him, they were closer and closer, while the kiss deepened and she could feel fire flowing into her veins, her belly, and she couldn’t help circling his neck with an arm, seeking a deeper contact between them, craving for more.  
She needed to breath, but she didn’t want to break their kiss, she didn’t want to stop what was happening between them. _ _

__It was different, she thought, different than anything she had ever felt with other men, different from the kisses she had given and received, more out of habit than for pleasure. The way her body was responding to Seth’s touch was different…it was more real, more exciting, more breath taking._ _

__Seth was still holding her at him, and she could feel his excitement through the fabric of his jeans, yet he wasn’t really touching her body, his right hand was still on her face, while his left one, was on her waist._ _

__She, on the other hand, couldn’t stop touching him: neck, shoulders, arms, back…her hands went everywhere, touching, seeking his skin, moaning with frustration and pleasure, and she found it extremely exciting that she was the one making those sounds, and that they were being absorbed by Seth’s lips._ _

__She gasped, when she felt Seth’s hand, his left one, leaving her waist and slowly, oh, so slowly going up, tracing with his fingers her hips, her stomach only to end up covering her breast._ _

__She had to break the kiss, then. She had to take a deep breath. She was panting, her heart was furiously thumping in her chest. She didn’t remember ever feeling her face, her body burning with desire._ _

__She didn’t remember ever loving someone as much as she loved Seth Gecko, in that very moment._ _

___* * *  
He was wrong  
He was a boy scout. A fucking boy scout!_

__Long before his life took a turn for the worse, Seth Gecko had learnt to respect women. It had been partially due to his fear, one he’d never admit…not even to himself, that he might become like Richie or like his father…and partially it had been something he had liked to do._ _

__He had killed women, of course, but that had been just part of his job. With the women he had been with, he had always been correct. Never had he hit a woman, never had he forced himself upon a woman. He hadn’t laid a hand on his ex wife, although she had been a real bitch, and would have deserved it._ _

__Not that he was fucking prince charming, or the main character from a romance. He knew what he wanted and he usually got it._ _

__Things with Kate were different, though. He was acting differently. He was being a fucking boy scout!_ _

__While he took a deep breath, after the most intense kiss he had ever experienced, he thought about the fact that he had been a gentleman, so far._ _

__He had used all his self-control not to touch her like a horny teenager, especially when Kate’s hands had started roaming all over his body, touching him anywhere but where he had really needed her to touch him. He had almost lost it when she had moaned in his mouth._ _

__He was a fucking boy scout, alright.  
A breathless boy scout, who couldn’t stop smiling like an idiot!_ _

__Kate’s hand was still on his shoulder and she was looking at him wide eyed; her face was flushed with passion, her lips were swollen from their kiss, and Seth was sure he was going to burst into flames, if they didn’t do something soon, very soon. The bedroom was close. Very close._ _

__The couch was close too_ _

__The floor was close too._ _

__Not to mention the shower stall, which wasn’t really close, but had its advantages, after all._ _

__Kate tilted her hand down, and touched his chest with her fingertips and Seth thought that she could probably hear how strongly his heart was beating…and he didn’t care._ _

__They were still so close, and with his mind’s eyes Seth saw himself lifting the girl up and laying her on his lap. He shook his head, instead, and his smile grew even bigger – which he didn’t imagine it could be possible. -_ _

__Neither of them said anything, they just kept looking at each other and then, as one, once again their lips met. Without hesitancy, that time._ _

__They had to get up from there, he decided, before they ended up making love on that battered couch._ _

__And since when he used the term, “making love”, anyway?_ _

__Kate interrupted his musings when she started moving, only to end up sitting on his lap, just like he had envisioned it, mere seconds before.  
His lips moved away from hers and her moan of frustration was replaced by one of pleasure when his lips went to kiss her throat and shoulders, and he could finally taste her skin. _ _

__“Kate” He breathed.  
And since when was his voice so thick with passion? He’d had women in his life, lots of them…and yet he was sure his voice had ever been that low, that full of passion. _ _

__While he had been busy thinking about how throaty his voice had become, Kate had lifted his sweater up and was now touching his chest._ _

__“Bedroom. Now.” He said, almost roaring those words._ _

__Although Kate nodded, none of them attempted to get up from the couch, especially when his lips covered Kate’s nipple through the fabric of her shirt. Kate arched her back, when he started teasing the nipple, which hardened right away at the mere touch of his tongue._ _

__A distant part of his mind, the one that had never really disappeared, although he had spent most of his adult life committing crimes, screamed at him to stop or, at least, take the girl in the bedroom…and chill out while he was it._ _

__He didn’t listen to that voice, he didn’t listen to anything except for Kate’s breath who was becoming more and more panting as she slowly started moving above him, and the only thing he wished…the only thing he wanted to was to get rid of those clothes and be inside of her._ _

__He wasn’t aware of how urgent his movements had become, when moving away from her, he helped her out of her shirt and smiled, with her, when he finally touched her breasts._ _

__He didn’t even notice the scars on her torso. The only thing he noticed was how soft her skin was, how warm. Kate’s hands ran through his hair and her lips took possession of his, and Seth let her do that, he let her took his breath away, again._ _

__He let his hands wander on her body, tasting the warmth of her skin, tracing her scars with his fingertips, while Kate was tugging at the helms of his sweater, and he couldn’t help smiling against her lips when she lightly moved away from him, sighing in frustration._ _

__“Kate” He said in a husky voice. “Bedroom. Now…or we ain’t gonna leave this couch!”_ _

__She nodded at his words, but from the look in her eyes while she kept moving over him, teasing him, he knew that she didn’t want to._ _

__There wasn’t ice in Kate’s eyes, now. There was just passion and an impish light that he was sure was going to drive him to distraction._ _

__A part of him wondered when the last time he had stopped looking at a woman’s eyes before having sex had been…and he didn’t care when he realized that it hadn’t probably ever happened._ _

__He realized that he had been looking at Kate, without moving, without talking…and that she’d been doing the same, he could feel her hands on his chest, and his hands were still on her hips._ _

__So, that was what being in love felt like?_ _

__Seth smiled, as Kate helped him out of his sweater._ _

__He could get used to it._ _

__Kate had moved, again, and her lips were now on his naked skin, and her tongue had just started tracing the lines of his tattoo, when they both heard knocking on the door._ _

_____ _

___He thought gritting his teeth in frustration._ _ _

___Kate tilted her head up and under other circumstances he’d have probably found the look of disappointment and curiosity on her face, very funny._ _ _

___He didn’t find it funny, in that moment._ _ _

___They didn’t move and Seth didn’t even realize that he was holding Kate at him and…was shielding her, somehow._ _ _

___“Are you waiting for someone?” Kate asked in a low voice._ _ _

___“Sure, the mayor with the fucking towns keys!”_ _ _

___Once again, they heard knocking on the door, and Seth tilted his head down for a second, before quickly kissing Kate’s forehead, who a second later moved away from him and got up from the couch.  
“Jack!” it was a man outside, he was still knocking on the door, using the name he usually gave to vampire killers. _ _ _

___Seth grabbed the sweater from the floor, he could feel Kate’s eyes on him, but he decided to ignore the girl for a few seconds, while he put on the sweater and took from the back pocket of his jeans the small gun he always kept with him, even when he was home._ _ _

___Only when he was near the door did he look at Kate: she was sitting cross legged on the couch, she was wearing the tee shirt; she looked calm, the look in her eyes was cold, blank, as if nothing had happened, as if they hadn’t been making out on that couch, like horny teenagers, just a few seconds before. The icy look in her eyes had come back._ _ _

___He knew that coldness didn’t really belong to her; he knew it was something she used. She always kept her shit together…no matter what happened. She used that coldness, as much as she used the stakes or *his* gun._ _ _

___He turned toward the door and squared his shoulders, and as he opened it he cocked the gun. He heard Kate getting up from the couch and take a step toward him._ _ _

___Seth recognized the man on the doorstep: he was in his early forties, he was tall, slender, brown haired, he was wearing sunglasses, which couldn’t quite hide his chiseled features and was dressed in black._ _ _

___He had met that man when he had come to town a few days before; he had been in the Church, he had met him when he had asked the vampire killer priest of the town to bless the water and the bullets._ _ _

___“I got to talk to you. Both of you” The man said._ _ _

___Seth creased his brows: how the fuck did he know Kate was with him? And why hadn’t he shot him, already?_ _ _

___“Do you?” He asked with a knit of his eyebrows._ _ _

___The man nodded, stifling his hands in his coat’s pockets. Seth didn’t move, didn’t gesture him inside and could hear Kate getting closer to him._ _ _

___“You’re in trouble, guys…” The man said, and his full lips stretched in a half smile at those words._ _ _

___Seth was tempted to snort at the man’s words, he reached out and grabbed him by his shoulders and pushed him inside the apartment. He kicked the door closed and when he turned to face the man he wasn’t surprised seeing that Kate had grabbed the man by the shoulders and was circling his neck with an arm._ _ _

___Under any other circumstances he’d have probably smiled. He’d have smiled because for the first time in a very long time he wasn’t alone. Not anymore. That wasn’t the moment to smile, though._ _ _

___He aimed the gun at the man and said, “Mind telling what the fuck does that mean?”_ _ _

___* * *  
Before vampires took his wife and son away from him, Gregory Sheridan had been a psychologist, a good one. Then there had been that vacation in Mexico and those fucking bikers that had turned into vampires and slaughtered his only son, just for fun…and turned his wife into a vampire. _ _ _

___He had killed his wife and just for a stroke of luck he’d been able to get out of that nightmare…alive. Once he’d come back to Canada, while he was still trying to figure out what exactly had happened and tried to make sense of why it had happened, they had approached him: the vampire killers of his town. He didn’t even know at the time that almost every town had vampire killers. He hadn’t even digested the fact that vampires were real._ _ _

___He had become a vampire killer out of necessity more than for a willingness to kill vampires. On the outside his life hadn’t changed: he still was a psychologist, he still did what he used to…but that was just the surface. He was a vampire killer, now. He went out patrolling, he helped other vampire killers; he helped Father Benson, the leader of the vampire killers of the town to keep a low profile._ _ _

___It had been ten years since he had become a vampire killer and for the past five and half years he had heard rumors, coming from South America, about two American vampire killers. He had heard all about their efficiency and cruelty in killing vampires. He had heard about the girl who wandered from town to town traveling on a Motor Home. He had heard she was a cold, mean bitch with long brown hair and that she was even worse than vampires as for cruelty._ _ _

___He had heard about the tattooed man, who killed vampires with guns with special bullets on which he carved crosses, when he didn’t rip their hearts out bare handed. He had heard that he stole money, weapons and cars from them._ _ _

___The American vampire killers had become some kind of a legend in their underground world, the echoes of their battles had made them become bigger than life; he had met the man, Jack, the previous week. He had entered the Church, their Headquarter, draped in a long black coat, he had noticed bruises and abrasions on his face and knuckles. His face had looked tired but his voice had been steady and sharp, as he had asked Father Benson to bless water and bullets for him. He hadn’t talked, he had barely shaken their hands, he had been all business._ _ _

___Once got what he had come for, he had left barely saying good-bye, the only thing he had said had been that he’d get in touch. Gregory had known he was lying, though: Jack…didn’t make friends, didn’t share anything of his life, didn’t give a damn about their world or their rules._ _ _

___He had recognized him, even if that had been the first time he had seen him. Everyone knew Jack wasn’t his real name, but none of the vampire killers felt like investigating about it. It was one of the rules: it didn’t matter who one had been before, the only thing that mattered was the fight._ _ _

___The only thing that mattered was that when Jack or Kate were around, vampires died and local vampire killers’ job could become either easier…or, sometimes, a lot more complicated._ _ _

___He had been surprised when he had been told that Jack and Kate knew each other. He had been told all about their meeting and how Kate, the same woman who killed whole nests of vampires without a hitch had fainted when she had seen him._ _ _

___He had made them follow the previous night and he had been told of how they had tore apart a bar in the outskirts of town. All by themselves._ _ _

___As a psychologist he was fascinated by their dynamic and by their personalities, that’s why he had volunteered to go and talk to them, knowing he’d find them still together._ _ _

___He should have expected that kind of welcoming, he thought as Jack was still aiming the gun at his head and Kate was holding him by the neck._ _ _

___As far as he knew Jack and Kate had been fighting without interruption for years. As far as he knew they had always fought on their own, without keeping other people around; they had both refused to be part of the underground world of vampire killers, they had been alone…and yet, as he had noticed, they had acted in perfect synchrony a few moments before, almost as if watching each other’s back was something natural for them. Something they were used to doing._ _ _

___“I’m waiting…” Jack said and Greg noticed how the man had narrowed his eyes._ _ _

___“I’ll be glad to explain everything when you stop…” He stopped in mid sentence when Kate’s grip on his neck intensified._ _ _

___“No, no…see? When he asks you for explanations you don’t fuck around, you just talk!” She hissed, against his face._ _ _

___“Vampires” He said. Kate’s grip on his neck lessened but Jack didn’t lower his gun, he looked like he wasn’t going to any time soon._ _ _

___“Mother fuckers, who suck people dry, we know that…and?” He said._ _ _

___“You’re not safe here, you have to leave town, and do it now…” He said._ _ _

___Jack lowered his gun for a second, only to aim it lower at his abdomen when he asked, “Who sent you here? How did you know she was here?”_ _ _

___“Father Benson did…you met him last week. We have been keeping an eye on you” Greg explained, noticing how Jack kept casting glances at Kate._ _ _

___It looked almost like they were silently communicating, deciding whether to get rid of him or letting him go, eventually Jack lowered his gun and put it away in the waistband of his jeans and a moment later Kate let him go and said, “You were saying something about vampires…and trouble for us”_ _ _

___“They are going to hunt you down when the sun sets. They’re not going to stop, not after last night.”_ _ _

___“And who told you that? Did they hire a fucking PR?” Jack asked, creasing his brow._ _ _

___Although Jack wasn’t moving, there was a tension, an edge about him, clear in his body’s language and in the way he looked at him and all around in the room.  
One could almost see the tension in his body, the hardness in his brown eyes lightly faded, though, when he looked at the girl behind him. That was something he hadn’t expected. _ _ _

___“Something like that…” He said, “They sent a message for us into one of ours’ mouth.” Greg shrugged and added, “It goes without saying we only got the head of our man…”_ _ _

___Jack just knitted an eyebrow at his words, as if to say: “So fucking what?” and Greg thought that after all those years spent fighting vampires, none of them was particularly impressed by vampires’ cruelty, not even Kate who had just snorted at his words._ _ _

___“What did the message say?” The girl asked._ _ _

___Greg turned toward her, and only then did he notice that she was wearing a pair of shorts and a tee shirt. He thought he wouldn’t be far from the truth if he guessed those clothes belonged to Jack._ _ _

___Jack suddenly grabbed his shoulder in an iron grip, making him start and forcing him to turn toward him. The man’s eyes were dark…and the look in it was vicious while he asked, “What the fuck did the message say?”_ _ _

___Greg cleared his throat, judging by the man’s stare, he had been probably looking at Kate with his mouth opened in wonder. He had suspected the involvement between the two vampire killers had been more than professional, but now he was sure of that, at least if he had to give his opinion based on Jack’s behavior. Not to mention the fact that Kate was probably wearing his clothes._ _ _

___Greg sighed before saying; “They said they are going to find you guys and skin you alive, beginning with you, Kate. ” He looked at her and continued, “They said what happened in Mexico looks like a walk in the park compared to what they’re going to do with you. They said they would skin you…and whoever gets in the way. They said that if we care about our town we have to get rid of you and do it now”_ _ _

___Kate took some steps and she went next to Jack, and despite what he had just told them, she was smiling. And Greg couldn’t help the goose bumps that covered his arms’ skin when he saw that smile. It was creepy._ _ _

___“That’s what they said?” It was the only thing she said._ _ _

___Greg wondered whether Kate had noticed that Jack’s look had darkened while he had told them the contents of the message, it took a look at the girl to know that she hadn’t noticed or if she had, she was really good at hiding that._ _ _

___“Is that all?” Jack asked in a low voice._ _ _

___Greg shrugged his shoulders, “Yes there is. Kate? I took the liberty of bringing the Motor Home here. Kiernan sends his regards”_ _ _

___“Son of a…” She roared, she moved toward him, and Greg was sure she was going to hit him, Jack though stopped her, by putting a hand on her shoulder._ _ _

___Kate stopped, and Greg saw how she flared her nostrils, trying to calm down. It didn’t seem to work, because she turned toward the man and angrily asked, “What the fuck is your problem?”_ _ _

___“I say we get the hell away from here…” He said._ _ _

___Greg had to hide his disbelief. He had expected more of a fight from the man. As far as he knew threats had no effects over him, except to push him to keep fighting. Jack seemed to sense his disbelief because he looked at him for a second and then turning to look at Kate he added, “It’s their town…and you wanted to leave anyway, didn’t you?”_ _ _

___Kate was as incredulous as he was, and there was anger in her eyes, it didn’t last long, though and was soon replaced by coldness and detachment as she tilted her hands up in resignation. She left the room and a second later Greg heard her shutting one of the doors behind them._ _ _

___Jack tilted his head down, and Greg saw how he was clenching his jaws, probably trying to keep his cool, not to let out the anger he could see reflected in his eyes. It was more than mere anger…it was fury, it was almost tangible in the room, it was a murderous fury._ _ _

___He was sure, in that moment, that Jack was capable of killing another human being, he was sure he was restraining himself from killing him._ _ _

___He wondered, once again, who Jack had been before he started killing vampires for a living. In his experience there were two kind of vampire killers: those who killed vampires out of simple faith, just like Father Benson, and those, just like him, who killed vampires out of sorrow, anger, because their lives had been torn up by vampires_ _ _

___Whose category did Kate and Jack belong to? The lines around their eyes spoke volumes about pain and loss, and it was clear, at least for him, that they both had lost loved ones because of vampires…yet, somehow, he felt that it wasn’t just pain pushing a barely legal girl and a man who looked like an ex con to fight vampires._ _ _

___“Is that all?” Jack asked, breaking his train of thoughts. There was still anger in his eyes and on his face, but he was keeping it under a tight control, now._ _ _

___Greg put off his sunglasses; Jack creased his brow but didn’t seem particularly impressed with the huge scar that covered up his right eye making him blind. That scar was one last gift from his wife, given to him just seconds before he rammed a make shift stake into her heart. Jack put his hands on his hips and repeated, “Is that all?”_ _ _

___“Actually no” Greg said. He rummaged into the pockets of his coat, and wasn’t surprised when he heard the man taking a step toward him, and he was sure that if he had tilted his head up in that moment, he’d have found him close to him, ready to block him…or kill him if he had deemed it necessary._ _ _

___He took a white envelope from the inner pocket of his coat and looked at him while he said, “I’ve got a phone call from some friends. They’re near Vancouver. It looks like they’re having problems getting rid of some parasites”_ _ _

___He handed the envelope to Jack who took it without opening and said, “They really need a hand over there”_ _ _

___Jack casually tossed the envelope on a chair behind him. He didn’t talk, he didn’t ask questions about those vampires. Greg had expected that kind of reaction, just like he knew he wasn’t going to tell him if he was willing to go to help the group of vampire killers near Vancouver._ _ _

___It was clear that both Jack and Kate didn’t like to take orders and neither of them wanted to be tied to any group of vampire killers. That’s why he had been so surprised by their interaction._ _ _

___He nodded at Jack and got to the door. He side glanced at him noticing that as soon as he had turned his back at him, Jack had cast a glance at the closed door behind which Kate had disappeared a few moments before._ _ _

___He had heard tales, about both the vampire killers; he had heard tales about how they both were like war machines: cold and ruthless and cruel almost as much as the vampires they killed._ _ _

___He had heard tales about how it looked like both of them had ice flowing into their veins, instead of blood. As far as he had been told, nothing upset them too much, nothing moved them, nothing could really hurt them._ _ _

___What he had noticed seeing them, though, was another story altogether; a story no one had ever told him, probably because none of the vampire killers had ever met the two of them together. Yes, they were cold; they never lost their cool. Yes, Jack looked like a pro with guns and Kate hadn’t skipped a beat while she had heard the threats against her._ _ _

___They were still capable of having feelings, though. That much was clear for him._ _ _

___And they were in for a hell of a ride._ _ _

___Gregory Sheridan had been a good psychologist, but it didn’t take a shrink to realize that the two vampire killers were in love with each other …and either they hadn’t a clue about being in love or, as he suspected, they didn’t have a clue about how to deal with those feelings._ _ _

____Romantic relationships between vampire killers didn’t usually last, unless they decided to change life, to give up on the fight…otherwise they ended up in tragedy.  
The thing was…there weren’t lots of vampire killers who willingly gave up on the fight…it just didn’t happen. People who were introduced to that world of blood and pain and monsters, rarely if ever, turned their back at it and pretended it didn’t exist.   
Relationships between vampire killers were dangerous…for them and people around them. _ _

___He opened the door and took another glance at Jack who, for a moment, looked like he was lost in thought._ _ _

___They were in trouble alright._ _ _

___Relationship between vampire killers ended up in tragedy one way or another…and with Kate and Jack involved? He didn’t even want to think of what would happen if one of them were killed._ _ _

___He refused to think of what would happen if one of them ever became a vampire._ _ _

___Kate and Jack were in trouble…and they weren’t the only ones._ _ _

___As he got out from the building where Jack - or whatever his real name was – lived, he decided he had to keep observing them, but first he had some phone calls to make._ _ _

___Who the hell were Jack and Kate, really? How did they start killing vampires? How and when had they met for the first time?_ _ _

___* * *  
The image she was looking at in the mirror was different than the one she had seen not even a hour ago. Kate Fuller sighed as she leant over the sink to better look at her reflected image in the mirror; the light which had sparkled in her eyes had gone, the only trace of what had almost happened with Seth was just the light swell of her lips and she couldn’t help touching them with her fingertips as she closed her eyes. _ _ _

___She had been an idiot. She had been a damn idiot._ _ _

___She had longed to see Seth again, with all of herself, despite forcing herself not to. She had looked for him with her eyes, with her heart, in every bar, every alley, in every newspaper news for six long years._ _ _

___She hadn’t foreseen that the hard discipline she had imposed to herself for six years, a discipline made of loneliness, pain and blood could be so easily and quickly shattered.  
It had taken a few hours to forget whom…rather what she had become. It had taken a few hours to forget that she couldn’t afford to dream, to hope…to love. _ _ _

___It had taken a few hours for her to fall all over again for Seth Gecko. The old Kate, the one who had seen her whole family die in Mexico and the new Kate, the one who killed vampires and collected scars on her body and what was left of her soul had merged into one and had fallen for Seth Gecko._ _ _

___And she couldn’t afford that. She couldn’t allow herself to forget, because on one thing Seth had been right: the Titty Twister’s vampires had indeed bit their souls…they had changed them. There couldn’t be any turning back for her; there couldn’t be a normal life for her. Not any more._ _ _

___The vampire killer’s visit had been the mother of all wake up calls._ _ _

___Just because for a few hours, without even noticing, she had deluded herself into thinking she could be happy, that she could stop being lonely, it didn’t mean vampires would stop killing, would stop threatening her. Just because for a few hours time hadn’t mattered, it didn’t mean the last six years of her life didn’t happen._ _ _

___Just because Seth wanted to protect her, it didn’t mean he could succeed. She had been furious at him when he had told her to leave town. She had been furious at him when she had seen his eyes darken when the vampire killer had talked about Mexico. She had been furious when the vampire killer had looked at her as if she was a fucking guinea pig._ _ _

___She had been furious at herself because she had showed her feelings, furious at the town’s vampires because they knew about what had happened to her in Mexico, when she herself couldn’t even remember what had really happened that night…and wasn’t even sure she wanted to._ _ _

___She had been frightened by the vampires’ threats, toward her…and toward Seth. For six year she had hoped that Seth was still alive…and the previous night while they were fighting together, part of her had feared for him, although she knew he was more than capable of taking care of himself…. and was damn good at it._ _ _

___For a few hours she had really thought that she could live in that bubble of happiness and peace she had been engulfed by when Seth had caught her fall; for a few hours she had wanted to delude herself into thinking that it could last forever…but it didn’t work that way. Not for them._ _ _

___Seth killed vampires, just like her. Seth played with life and death, every single night…just like she did. Seth didn’t care about living or dying…and Kate was frightened by that, although, she felt the same thing. She was frightened…it was the kind of terror she hadn’t felt ever since Santanico Pandemonium had showed her true face before biting Richie Gecko._ _ _

____Fury.  
Fright.   
Fear. _ _

___Kate wasn’t used to feeling things so strongly. Not any more. Whether it was happiness, passion, love or fury and fright…it was just too much for her, after all that time.  
The vampire killers said she was as cold as ice, and it was the truth. _ _ _

___It had been her fear, her hesitancy to mess things up that night at the Titty Twister. It had been pain and sorrow and residual of fear to make her sleepy and fuck things up the day after, when she had fallen asleep in her Motor Home._ _ _

___The only weapon she had had…the only useful weapon she had had for the past six years had been her coldness. Being cold, detached, unforgiving had become second nature for her. In order to survive and not to go crazy she had learnt to freeze her feelings, to forget what mercy was like._ _ _

___It had been that…or letting her heart implode._ _ _

___And now, that tattooed son of a bitch had come back into her life, thinking he could protect her, thinking he could make her remember that she was still a girl, that there were other things in life besides blood suckers, pain and quick fucks on the backseats of cars or pick ups, with men she didn’t even bother to know the names of…or recall their faces afterwards._ _ _

___Kate blinked her eyes open when she heard Seth knocking on the door._ _ _

___ _

___She thought, and couldn’t help the half smile that crept up on her lips._ _ _

___“It’s open,” She said, turning toward the door._ _ _

___Seth entered the bathroom and looked around, and Kate saw how he glanced at her, he almost looked surprised seeing that she had put on her jeans and boots._ _ _

___“The dickhead’s gone…” Seth said._ _ _

___Kate nodded and said, “I think I’m going to go too…mind if I keep the shirt? Mine is trashed…”_ _ _

___Seth shook his shoulders and then did a double take, almost as if he hadn’t registered her words at the beginning. He was confused and Kate decided to ignore that._ _ _

___He took some steps, but Seth blocked her, by putting himself in front of the door and said, “Kate, about what I said before…”_ _ _

___Kate tilted her head up and looked at him; why was that man, a killer, a thief, a mean mother fucking vampire killer, looking at her like that? Why was the look in his eyes so full of…what? Warmth? Care?  
Did he do that on purpose? Did he consciously decide to fuck up her life every time their paths crossed?_ _ _

___“Forget it, Seth. You were right, I wanted to leave anyway…”_ _ _

___“Ok” He said, “Just give me five minutes and we’ll…”_ _ _

___“No!” She said, shaking her head._ _ _

___Seth kept still, he didn’t say a word, he didn’t move even when she took another step, closing the distance between them. The son of a bitch didn’t want to let her out! She put her hands on her hips and said, “Seth? I gotta go…”_ _ _

___Not only didn’t Seth let her out of the bathroom, he put his hands on his hips as well, and looked at her and Kate wondered where the hell she had put her gun._ _ _

___“Did you hear what he said? I have to leave town. You wanted me to leave, didn’t you?” She said, she moved but Seth was quicker than her, he lunged forward and grabbed her by her shoulders._ _ _

___“What the fuck are you doing? Are you crazy?” She hissed, struggling as the grip on her shoulder strengthened. She was strong, enough to surprise and kill vampires, and yet, she couldn’t pull away from his grip. He was just too strong for her._ _ _

___“Can you wait a goddamn second?” He hissed back, and the grip on her shoulders became even stronger._ _ _

___He was hurting her, now, but she didn’t talk, she just arched an eyebrow at him, silently urging him to speak._ _ _

___“The vampire killer told me about a situation in Vancouver…” Seth said in a low voice. They were so close to each other now, that she could hear both their strong heartbeats._ _ _

___And why was Seth body so damn warm against hers? Why did his scent filled her senses? Why were his hands on her naked skin fucking up her plans? Why was her resolve crumbling down?_ _ _

___“Which kind of situation?” She asked, and was surprised by how calm her voice sounded, despite she could feel her heart furiously pumping in her chest and her throat was dry._ _ _

___“He gave me an envelope, I haven’t opened it yet, but I guess it’s always the same kind of situation…” He answered._ _ _

___Kate nodded, wondering whether Seth had realized that she wasn’t struggling to free herself any more, if he had…why was he still gripping her shoulders?_ _ _

___“I wanna make a deal…” Seth started._ _ _

___Kate rolled her eyes, barely resisting the urge to tell him how well the last deal he had made with someone she knew had ended. She didn’t, though, but Seth had probably had the same thoughts, because the grip on her shoulders suddenly lessened._ _ _

___“What?” She asked. She wasn’t sure she even wanted to know what he had in mind. She just wanted to go away and forget their paths had crossed, again. She just wanted to stop feeling._ _ _

___“We get to Vancouver, see what the fuck is going on over there … we part ways, piece of cake…” He said._ _ _

___Kate looked at him: Seth was very serious about that and she couldn’t help wondering whether he was aware he was gripping her shoulders again and yet, the look in his eyes was still gentle, still caring, still warm and Kate could clearly hear all of her defenses, her resolve shattering all around her._ _ _

___Why was he doing this to her? Why did he want to destroy what was left of her life as well? Why was she allowing him to do that to her?_ _ _

___She knew it was crazy, she knew it, even while she calmly said, “Fine…”_ _ _

___She was finally able to pull away from him and added, more for herself than him, “But here it’s how it works, Seth: I’m going down and start the Motor Home. I’m waiting for five minutes. One second more and I’m gone. Deal or not deal…are we clear on that?”_ _ _

___She saw Seth clenching his jaws, forcing himself not to speak. She crossed her arms over her chest and added, “One more thing, ‘Jack’: I’ve been on my own for a long time, now. I don’t need a fucking baby sitter!”_ _ _

___She exited the bathroom and stopped for a second in the living room to get her coat and backpack, and left the apartment._ _ _

___Seth’s voice made her stop on her tracks. He was behind her, she hadn’t even heard him leaving the bathroom until he said, “It’s just until we get there, Kate. Once we’re there, we part ways. ”_ _ _

___It was a trap. It was a lie, the only one Seth had ever told her. She knew that and later on her suspicions were confirmed, but when it happened it was already too late._ _ _

___* * *  
He had to be nuts. That was the only explanation for his behavior for the past few minutes. Seth was fucking nuts. _ _ _

___He looked around, making sure he wasn’t forgetting anything._ _ _

___He had collected his stuff in record time, he had dressed in record time and he knew, without a doubt, that he would get to the Motor Home in record time._ _ _

___He had gone crazy. And he knew exactly when it had happened: he had gone nuts when the vampire killer, Greg, that was his name, had talked about Mexico and what had happened to Kate there. After he had left her._ _ _

___To think that one of the reasons he had left Kate in the middle of the desert in Mexico had been to spare her from the hell that El Rey was._ _ _

___Great. Just. Fucking. Great._ _ _

___He had wanted her to be safe…from him and that shit-hole known as El Rey and instead she had ended up in a deeper kind of shit, while he spent sleepless nights, killed vampires and fucked women he didn’t even really want._ _ _

___He had gone through the motions for the past six years, day after day. He had killed vampires to be able to close his eyes at nights, he had eaten not to drop on the pavement, he had looked in the mirrors of the dozens of motel rooms and little rat-holes he had rented through the years, and had met the face of a stranger._ _ _

___The guy whose reflection he had gotten used to seeing in the mirror, didn’t speak much, he saved lives of people he’d willingly robbed or killed before. The man had learnt what real self-control was like. It had stopped being a matter of keeping his shit together, of keeping his cool…he had been forced to learn…in order to kill as many vampires as possible._ _ _

___The guy whose reflection he kept seeing in the mirrors of motel rooms of rat-holes he rented for a few days, scarcely resembled the man who had once left a trail of blood and guts and dead bodies behind him while trying to get across the border to Mexico. He resembled that man…but he wasn’t the same person any more._ _ _

___And then it had taken a little more than a day to smile, more than he had done for a long time, long before he was even convicted for murder. It had taken a little more than a day, to talk, to eat and actually taste the food he ate, to sleep without dreams, to fight alongside someone who watched his back, to kiss and being kissed almost senseless._ _ _

___It had taken a little more than a day to just…start living again, and enjoy doing so, right when he had started to believe it was never going to happen again._ _ _

___It had taken a little more than a day to fall in love…for the first time in a *very* long time, long after he had given up on the whole thing._ _ _

___Kate couldn’t care less about vampires’ threats, but he had taken them very seriously. If they had threatened him, he knew exactly what he’d done: he’d have waited for the sun to set, and then he’d have killed all of them, all the vampires in that fucking town._ _ _

___Threats against him tended to piss him off._ _ _

___Threats against the woman he had just found out he was in love with, didn’t piss him off. They were scaring him…and he hated being scared. Threats against the woman he was in love with, had pushed him to temporary become a doormat and lie…in order to protect her and bring her away from that shit-hole._ _ _

___He had lied to Kate…and he hated lying. He was a thief, he was a killer, he wasn’t a fucking liar. He’d never been._ _ _

___He had become her doormat, and he hadn’t allowed that to anyone. Ever. Not even Richie._ _ _

___And to make it worse: he didn’t give a shit about it. What it mattered was that when the sun set they had to be as far away from that town and its vampires as they could. It went without saying that if one of those fuckers tore Greg, the blind vampire killer, to pieces he’d probably shake his hand before killing him, of course._ _ _

___He thought while he hurried down the stairs, that as always he had succeeded in messing up his already messed up life: how did he plan to protect a woman whose life was all about killing vampires? How could he love a woman who constantly played with life and death?_ _ _

___How were they going to live together in the Motor Home, even for a few days, without killing each other?_ _ _

___Kate was waiting for him; she was outside the Motor Home. Seth noticed she was wearing a large white sweater under her black coat and was surprised when he saw that she looked calmer, now, she was even smiling. She opened the door of the Motor Home for him and waited as he put his stuff inside, without even entering the bastard._ _ _

___“I’ve got to take care of the car before we go…” He said getting out from the Motor Home. Years spent being a criminal still paid off. He always instinctively knew where to go to get rid of stuff and make money out of it._ _ _

___Kate nodded; Seth was about to say something when Kate interrupted him saying, “Seth…about what happened in your apartment…”_ _ _

___“I know you can take care of yourself,” He said._ _ _

___Kate lightly shook her head no and said, “I wasn’t talking about that…”_ _ _

___Seth creased his brows, puzzled. It took him a moment to get what Kate was referring to and when he did, he moved toward her. Kate’s voice stopped him, though, saying, “Let’s just forget about it. It’s better this way…for both of us ”_ _ _

___It hurt. He had gotten punches in the gut less painful than Kate’s words. He didn’t want to forget, he didn’t want to pretend nothing had happened. If that dick head hadn’t knocked on the door, he’d be inside Kate, now, he’d be kissing her lips…he wouldn’t be freezing his ass out in the open of that cold Canadian morning._ _ _

___He wanted to tell Kate that he didn’t want to forget, that it wasn’t going to happen. He wanted a vampire to kill or a human – preferably Greg- to beat into a bloody pulp. So maybe it would stop hurting like a son of a bitch!_ _ _

___Instead he didn’t move for a few seconds, while he forced a smile on his lips, even if he felt them becoming numb as he smiled._ _ _

___The wind was blowing, it was a cold, strong wind that moved the hems of their coats but Seth couldn’t really feel it. He was still smiling but he wasn’t even aware of that._ _ _

___“Seth?” She asked in a low voice._ _ _

___Seth blinked once twice, then he wordlessly turned and headed toward his car, giving his back to her._ _ _

___“Did you hear me?” She asked._ _ _

___Seth stopped, his shoulders squared, his hands closed in tight fists in the pockets of his coat, and that fucking smile still plastered on his face. “I did…” He said._ _ _

___“And?” She tentatively asked._ _ _

___“Like I said, I’ve got to take care of the car before we leave.”_ _ _

___“But…” She started._ _ _

___He didn’t even turn when he talked, his voice was all business when he said: “I’ve got nothing to say, sugar When I do and it’s cruel enough I’ll tell ya. For now I just want to leave this fucking place.”_ _ _

___He slowly turned to look at her: Kate was looking at him, an unreadable expression on her face. He wasn’t even aware that his smile had gotten wider as he got into his car._ _ _

___Only when did he close the door the smile finally faded, and while he started his car he couldn’t help thinking that the trip to Vancouver was going to be long. Very long._ _ _

___He was screwed, but what else was new?_ _ _


	2. Broken Wings

Chapter 2  
\- The journey -

In my opinion seeing is to know  
The things we hold are always first to go  
And who's to say we won't end up alone

Crosses. 

There were crosses everywhere he looked; they were of various sizes and materials and covered almost every wall of the Motor Home. Seth was looking around, feeling the beginning of a headache just looking at all those crosses. 

The Motor home had changed since he’d last been in it…how the fuck could Kate live in such a trap?

Yet she did. Seth had noticed that it was home for her ever since they had gotten into the Motor Home. 

She had showed him where to hide his weapons in a secret compartment he was positive it hadn’t been there six years before. He had seen the vast assortment of weapons Kate had put together through the years: stakes, brass knuckles, a few crossbows, a couple of guns, a sawn-off shot gun, a couple of swords, knives, a machete and a lash. He wouldn’t be surprised if looking further he found a fucking rocket launcher!

She had showed him where to put his stuff and he had noticed that Kate, just like him, had quite a collection of medicines hidden in her Motor Home. While in the bathroom he had noticed, besides some stuff for women on which he hadn’t wanted to investigate further, some valium, tavor, prozac and lots and lots of painkillers, hidden in a secret cabinet which he was sure, would have made any drug dealer a happy camper. He had found other weapons in the bathroom, as well: a gun in a tiny basket under the sink, a few stakes in the shower stall, and crosses, lots of them, on the walls. 

There was a laptop on a table and on the only wall partially free from crosses, there were two maps: one of South America and one of Canada. 

What was really surprising Seth was the total lack of personal items such as family pictures…or even Scott’s guitar. It was almost as if she never had any family to begin with. 

Almost as if she had read his mind, Kate who was making some coffee said, “I needed the space, so I threw the old stuff away…most of the things had been already destroyed, anyway…I smashed the guitar on the head of one of the motherfuckers when…you know…”

Kate didn’t finish her sentence, she shrugged her shoulders and handed him a cup of coffee. She leant against the fridge and after she sipped from her mug she said, “I think we have to get away from here, and do it as soon as possible. We can’t stop for now…and sure as hell we cannot stop after dusk. Been there, done that…don’t wanna repeat it…”

“So?” Seth asked.  
He had liked how Kate’s eyes had lit up while she had talked: it had been like watching fire sparkling in her eyes. 

She was scared, though, he could see it clear on her face, the fear was sparkling as well, just like the fire and intelligence in her eyes …and it was an exciting sight. 

“So we’re going to take turns to drive. We’re going to stop to get food and oil” She ran a hand through her hair and blinked as if she had just recalled something and looked at him asking, “Can you drive a Motor Home?”

Seth just shrugged his shoulders and nodded, she did the same and said, “Then I’ll drive until dusk if that’s okay with you…”

Seth opened his mouth to object but closed it, realizing it would be useless, just like he knew he wasn’t going to get any sleep, so he just finished his coffee without talking. 

Talking right now would be useless. 

Kate was freaking out…she’d been freaking out ever since the vampire killer had knocked on his door, interrupting them. Kate needed to keep her shit together; she needed to be in control of what was happening, he could see that…because he often felt the same thing; he often needed to do the same. 

The fact that he understood where her behavior came from it didn’t mean he wasn’t hanging on every shred of self control he had, not to tear that Motor Home apart, beginning with those crosses…it just meant that the headache was getting worse and he’d end up breaking his jaws because he was clenching them too much in order to keep his mouth shut. 

Kate smiled at him and it was the first real smile she smiled ever since he had helped her out of her shirt in his apartment. “Knock yourself out…” She just said. 

Seth just raised a brow at her words and, as she started the motor home, he kept looking around: despite the crosses and the weapons and all the stuff she used to fight, the motor home was tidy, clean. Seth noticed a few gym tools such as weights and a rope. He noticed books as well and he couldn’t help wondering whether Kate had somehow finished school. 

Jacob had told him during the journey toward the border, prompted by his many questions, that Kate was a brilliant student, so much that her teachers had wanted her to graduate a year earlier. 

Six years later Kate used her brains to kill fucking bloodsuckers. The world was a shitty place, Seth thought shaking his head. 

“There are some blankets in the closet,” Kate said from the driver’s seat. 

“Right between a nuke and a flamethrower?” Seth asked getting to the closet. 

“I had to trade the flamethrower” She mumbled.

Seth blinked in surprise, he got close to Kate and asked, “You had a flamethrower?”

“Yeah” Kate said, side glancing him through the rear view mirror. 

“You’re shitting me! A fucking flamethrower? Where did you find it?” Seth asked. 

Kate smiled and shook her head, before saying, “Mexico, they had it hidden in a nest. I traded it for the hidden compartments and the laptop”

“You traded a flamethrower for a laptop? Babe, you’re nuts!” He commented smiling at her. 

Kate smiled back at him and said, “Well, the hidden compartments are useful, especially when you get to the borders…”

Seth went to the back to the motor home and sat; he relaxed against the back of the couch and said, “Whatever. But if we get another flamethrower we’ll keep it, okay?”

Seth saw Kate’s shoulders stiffen at his words, she didn’t talk, but he didn’t need to see her face to know that the ice in her eyes had probably become thicker as a fucking brick wall by now. 

He closed his eyes and was surprised when there weren’t shadows becoming monsters behind his closed lids. There were just the noises coming from the street, the rain that was ticking against the windows and the radio Kate had turned on with its volume low. 

He couldn’t help smiling when he realized that Kate was scanning the police’s radio. 

His smile widened: what else was Kate hiding in the Motor Home? Would she ever stop surprising him?

Seth fell asleep as he was thinking that he hoped Kate would never stop surprising him.   
Ever. 

* * *  
 “Don’t leave me ”

Kate’s voice was so full of fear as she said those words; her slender body was pressed against his as vampires were all around them. 

How many vampires were there, around them, ready to kill them? How many?   
A fucking legion!   
He’d been killing vampires for hours and yet they kept popping up. 

Their blood excited the vampires; the smell of their fear was a fucking beacon to them. Seth knew the smell of their fear was now stuck to their skin, even if he had stopped being afraid. He had stopped feeling anything when he had killed his brother. 

He didn’t feel tired. He didn’t feel any pain. The only thing he was aware of, was Kate’s body pressed against his as she begged him not to leave her. 

“Shoot the holes!” He was screaming at her. 

How long were they going to keep those fuckers away from them? How long before they became food? How long before they became bloodsuckers as well?

Kate was shooting holes, making beams of light that were keeping bloodsuckers away; they were still close, back to back, trying to protect each other. 

If there was a God, He’d finally decided to look down toward them, because Carlos’ voice beyond that fucking door came just at the right time. 

“Shoot at the door!” Seth screamed at the top of his lungs. 

Light. 

Light finally. Light filled the Titty Twister, sending those fucking bloodsuckers back to the hell where they belonged, as Kate and he ran from it, and he could feel the Titty Twister exploding and it burned as much as the sun on his skin. 

It was burning hot, and the blood on his skin stunk to high heaven and if he could, he’d have killed Carlos, instead he settled for just punching him. 

Why, out of all the shit holes in Mexico had he chosen the Titty Twister?

His body, his mind, was going on autopilot as he talked to Carlos, arranging a better deal with him. 

He gave the money to Carlos and took other money for Kate, as well. 

“I’m sorry,” He said. It was the truth…he had come to respect the Fullers the previous day; he’d have let them go. 

He couldn’t even look at Kate in the eyes. He hadn’t been able to really look at her, ever since Scott had died, ever since she had shot her own brother, blowing him and the bloodsuckers who were eating him alive all the way to hell. 

He heard Kate’s nervous laughter and then tilted his head up when she said, “Yeah…I’m sorry too…”

Giving her that money seemed so pathetic, so lame to him…but it was the only thing he could really do for her. 

“Seth…” Kate said, “Need some company?”

The smell of blood on his skin, on his clothes under that burning sun was becoming unbearable, he put off his jacket while he said, “Kate? Do you know where I’m going? Do you know what El Rey is?”

“No” She said. And Seth didn’t have troubles guessing what Kate was probably thinking, “It can’t be worse than this…”

How wrong she was. 

He turned his back at her. Taking her with him would be so easy: Kate was a bright kid, she wouldn’t ask any questions, and he wouldn’t allow other people to ask any. 

It would be simple…until she realized he had taken her to hell. A Christian girl, a preacher’s daughter in that shit hole known as El Rey, with a bastard like him. 

No. He wouldn’t do that to her. Not after what she’d just been through. 

He was a bastard, but he wasn’t a fucking bastard. He wouldn’t fuck up her life more than he had already done. He wouldn’t fuck up her life because he needed company. 

“Go home, Kate” He said. 

Light…. where had the light gone? Why did it suddenly become all too fucking dark around him?

“She is home!”

Seth turned when he heard Santanico Pandemonium’s voice hissing those words. 

The vampire was in front of him, wearing a tight long dress. A blood-red dress, she was in front of him, and he couldn’t see Kate any more. He could only hear her screaming. 

She smiled before saying, “Welcome back to hell, Seth!”

Seth stretched a hand to hit her, noticing with a certain surprise that he was wearing brass knuckles. 

He hit her with all of his strength, sending her to the ground. “How many times will I have to kill you, bitch?” He asked. 

Santanico laughed, as she got up, and the way she did, reminded Seth of a rattlesnake “Doesn’t matter, I’ll always be here, Seth. I’ll keep a seat for you!”

The vampire attacked him and Seth wasn’t even aware of his hands penetrating in her chest to rip her heart out. 

The vampire’s heart was beating in his hand and Seth looked at it, puzzled, before looking around for something wooden to stake it. He knelt in front of the vampire and took off one of her stilettos. 

Kate screamed, again, as he staked Santanico’s heart with her stilettos. He threw the heart on the pavement, and walked over the green goo that had once been Santanico’s body, crying Kate’s name. 

The motor home. Kate’s cries were coming from there.

The motor home’s door was open. And where the fuck were Carlos and his goons?

He ran to the motor home, shouting Kate’s name, only stopping to pick up pieces of wood from the ground, breaking them to form makeshift stakes. He noticed that the road around them was empty, silent…the only sounds he could hear were his heart, beating fast in his chest and Kate’s cries…and the sharp, unmistakable sound of a lash hitting something soft…

Kate. She was being whipped. 

He silently approached the camper; the smell of fresh blood mixed with old, dried one, was making him nauseous. 

Part of him was finally realizing he was having a dream, but he still kept moving, he still kept being afraid, he still couldn’t wake up. 

He got into the Motor Home and he almost let slip the stake when he saw Kate: she was at the center of the motor home, hanging from the ceiling, by her arms, she was naked from the waist up and was covered with blood. She was arching her back as she was being whipped. 

“Oh man, that’s what I call a fucking show!”

Seth closed his eyes when he heard his brother’s voice behind him. Out of all the shitty dreams he could be having…why that one? And why, although he was aware he was having a dream he couldn’t wake up? Why couldn’t he stop being afraid?

Richie casually drooped an arm around his shoulders and Seth opened his eyes, only to meet the too swollen, twisted face of the demon that had once been his brother. 

“Relax Seth…and enjoy the show!” Richard said and his lips stretched in a grotesque parody of a smile 

“Back off…” Seth hissed, looking away from him. 

He looked at Kate and at the blood that was pooling at her feet as the monster behind her, hidden in the dark kept whipping her. 

Richie moaned with pleasure before saying, “I guess it’s my turn, now…”

Richie’s arm left his shoulders and Seth felt relieved for a second before he digested the vampire’s words. 

“You touch her and I…” Seth started but Richie’s laughter interrupted him.

The vampire looked at him and said, “And you what? You fucking ram a wooden stake through my heart? Besides, look at her, man! She’s all wet and ready for me!”

Richie laughed again and Seth attacked him, while he heard Kate whispering, “Don’t leave me, Seth…”

“Hold on, sugar! ” Seth screamed, hitting Richie, the demon who had taken possession of his body with all of his strength. 

“Oh come on, Seth!” Richie protested, just like he used to do when he was a kid and he stopped him from setting their neighbors’ pets on fire. 

“Shut the fuck up, Richie!” Seth said while he kept hitting him until the vampire collapsed to the floor. 

He looked at the vampire as he knelt, noticing he now was looking at his brother’s face and he wished he could wake up with everything he was. The fact that he knew he was dreaming, wasn’t lessening what he felt, on the contrary it was making it all more vivid. 

Richie wasn’t moving any more, he was just looking at him, he looked like he was actually having fun watching him struggle with his feelings. 

“What the fuck are you looking at?” He asked, pointing the stake against his brother’s chest. 

“Just because you’ve fallen for her, things ain’t going to change, you know that, don’t you man?” Richie asked, just before Seth staked him. 

Ramming the stake into his brother’s chest was painful…just like the first time, just like every time he had relived that moment in his dreams. 

It hurt to know that once again he hadn’t been able to protect his brother. 

It hurt realizing that Richie was right, that his little brother, the fucking nut was right. 

It hurt realizing that although he had just relived the worst moment of his life, the dream wasn’t fading away and his body didn’t want to wake up. 

He jerked his head up when he heard the lash hitting Kate again. He slowly got up, taking a few steps forward, the being behind Kate was hiding in the dark and Seth narrowed his eyes. 

“Alright…” He said, “Cut the crap…let me see you!”

He took another step, stopping in front of Kate. The girl’s head was tilting forward, like that of a rag’s doll; her hair was covering her face. Seth stretched a hand, thinking he was a moron…what he was seeing was all a dream, for fuck’s sake! Just. A. Damned. Dream.

Kate’s skin was warm, and slick with blood, he slowly tilted her head up and gently moved some locks, damp with sweat and blood, away from her cheeks and brow, only to meet her face, swollen and purple with bruises. 

He closed his eyes for a second. Why couldn’t he wake up? Why although he knew he was dreaming he was feeling rage hot and red, as much as the blood that was beading Kate’s face and neck, clouding his sight?

“Kate?” He asked in a low voice, as he checked on her neck to make sure she hadn’t been bitten and to find a pulse. 

She was alive. She hadn’t been bitten. 

He smiled but his smile died on his lips when the being hidden in the dark, came out from the shadows showing his face. 

Seth didn’t move, he doubted he could, even if he wanted to, as the being kept showing more and more of itself. 

There were creases on his brow, large osseous bumps that started on its temples and trailed down its jaws. Although it was dark he could clearly see its skin, it was of a nauseating reddish color. 

Its face was a mask of death and horror with obsidian black eyes. 

Its body was huge and his breath caught in his throat when he noticed the tribal tattoo almost sparkling on his right shoulder. 

He…was the creature. He was looking at his vampire self. He…had been whipping Kate. He…had made her scream. 

Seth blinked once twice. The creature…him, walked toward him and Seth could see its hands: they were longer than normal, covered with reddish lumps, its nails were long and dirty, he noticed the creature was holding a bloody lash in its hands. 

“Think you can make it, loser?” The creature asked using his own voice. “Do you think you can protect her? From us? From you?”

The lash cracked again, this time against Kate stomach and Seth didn’t even try to move; he kept still as he finally could feel the edge of the dream starting to blur. 

“Do you really think that, Seth?” It was Kate’s voice now. She was talking to him in a bitter voice.

He blinked, in his dream, meeting just Kate’s face; all around him there was darkness, thick and suffocating. Kate was smiling, while her eyes shed red-blood tears. 

“I begged you not to leave me, Seth…”

Kate cried, while blood was gushing out from her eyes and mouth, while he closed his eyes and he could hear the lash cracking over and over again on Kate’s body. 

“Do you, Seth?” His voice, unnaturally deep asked, again. 

“Do you, dickless?”

Seth blinked his eyes open when he heard his father’s voice saying those words. He’d recognize his old man’s voice and the venom, the loathing in it everywhere. 

“You’ll fuck this up, dickless, you always do!” 

Seth woke up panting, his heartbeat was so strong, so frantic that it was almost deafening. He realized he was keeping his closed fists pressed against his thighs, he tilted his hands up and blinked in surprise when looking at his hands he realized he had drawn blood: his palms were dirty with it and his fingertips were stained with blood too. 

He took a deep breath as he got up from the bed and tried to free his mind from the images that had haunted his dream. 

Dream? What he had just woken from had been a motherfucking nightmare!

He looked around noticing they had stopped and Kate wasn’t on the motor home. He washed his hands in the tiny bathroom and then when he exited it, he noticed the blanket on the couch, Kate had probably covered him with it while he was sleeping. 

He took a look at the window, they had stopped in front of a service station, from where he was he could see Kate, she was in the store, holding a few bags in her hands, waiting at the cash register. 

Although he knew he was being paranoid, he couldn’t help looking at the other cars parked, waiting to get gas and then took another look at the store, to make sure there wasn’t a robbery taking place. He had done enough robberies to recognize the signs and was relieved when he didn’t notice any. 

Kate looked like she was lost in thought. She didn’t look like the girl she had met two days before, in that moment. She didn’t look like the young girl who had entered her motel room wearing just a bikini, six years before. She didn’t look like the girl who had valiantly fought alongside with him that night at the Titty Twister.

The look on Kate’s face was almost sad, but even from where he was he could see tension never leaving her slender body. Kate wasn’t really lost in thought, she wasn’t letting her guard down, not even then. 

Seth looked away from the girl’s face, and looked around in the motor home; he looked at the crosses, there were so many of them, of various sizes and materials. For a moment the images from his nightmare, of the motor home dipped in darkness as Kate was being tortured right in front of him, came to him, blurring his sight; he felt so tired, so overwhelmed…he could feel the nightmare sticking on his skin, in his bones…as much as the events of the past few days. 

He wanted to hit something…someone. He wanted to get into the store and kill everything on sight. He wanted his life back…without nightmares, without vampires, without shadows keeping him awake at nights.

He wanted his life back…without girls from his past…without girls he wanted, loved…and needed to protect without having a clue about how to do that. 

He shrugged his shoulders, instead, and went to the kitchenette, pouring some coffee in a mug, while he looked again at the store from which Kate was getting out. 

That was his life, he thought. He couldn’t change his life…anymore than he could grow wings and fly and besides he didn’t really want to change it, not if he wanted to keep what was left of his sanity.   
It wouldn’t have made sense to come back to his life before the Titty Twister…too much had changed since then. 

He heard Kate getting closer to the Motor home and took another deep breath, when new flashes of his nightmare came back to him. Even now he could see Kate’s face swollen and bruised, he could see the blood staining her face and neck and the angry marks on her creamy skin. 

 

“You’re awake!” Kate said when she got into the Motor Home. 

“I’ve been for a while,” Seth said. 

 

“Good. Sun is setting in a couple of hours,” Kate said placing the paper bags near the sink and Seth glimpsed the food and the bottles of whiskey inside of them. 

“Let’s start the big bastard, then…”

 

Kate put off her coat and took a sandwich from one of the bags, handing it to him and said, “Fine…once the sun sets we are not going to stop, whatever happens. We’re still too close to them.”

Seth took the sandwich from Kate’s hand and although he was tempted, he didn’t linger in touching her. Kate had been very clear on the issue: she didn’t want what had almost happened that morning to go on. 

 

He didn’t know how he was going to protect her from vampires; he doubted he could really protect her. 

__

_Kate nodded her head curtly before going back to the driver’s seat and Seth kept looking at her. He might not be able to protect her from vampires, perhaps, but he was going to protect her from himself…from his fuck ups. He could do that. He had to._

_Whatever it took._

_* * *_

_Kate was exhausted. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to being exhausted. She sometimes thought she had spent most of the past six years being dead tired._

_She had opened up her bed and she had fell on it, ignoring Seth’s look and had closed her eyes._

_Sleep was eluding her, though. She knew that her insomnia was partly due to what had happened that morning and to Seth who was now driving, listening to the police radio, just like she had done._

_She had been surprised by how cautious a driver Seth was and even more so by the fact that almost reading his mind Seth had said, “Low profile, Kate…I wouldn’t want to get up close and personal with some cop….”_

_Kate who had just finished changing for the night in the bathroom had stuck her head out of it and had called, “Neither do I…”_

_She had come out from the bathroom wearing an old pair of baggy pants and Seth’s shirt. Seth had looked at her through the rear-view mirror, but the look in his eyes had been blank._

_A few seconds later, she had collapsed on the bed and had started pretending to sleep._

_But Seth wasn’t the only reason for her insomnia: she was afraid to fall asleep. That was the other reason. She was afraid of what dreams might come once she fell asleep._

_She was afraid of her nightmares; she didn’t want Seth to see them. She had seen Seth having a nightmare that afternoon…she had seen the tension in his body and how his face had hardened. She had seen him closing his hands in fists and press them against his thighs, and had seen the red marks on his palms when she had got back._

_She had noticed how quiet he had been. She thought he had probably had one hell of a nightmare to upset him that way._

_She feared the good dreams as well as the bad ones, though. She feared the dreams where she was happy. Seth would probably think she was nuts but to her, those were the real nightmares. She could deal with nightmares, even the ones where she killed her family and was killed by vampires; she could even deal with nightmares about the Titty Twister, she had eventually learned how to._

_She couldn’t deal with the other kind of dreams. She couldn’t deal with dreams where she still had a family, where Seth was with her…and she led a normal life…not the freak show they both called life._

_She couldn’t afford another sleepless night, though. Not if she wanted to be lucid, not if she wanted to be efficient._

_“Take a pill, Kate…” Seth suddenly said._

_Kate blinked her eyes open, turning her head to look at him. Seth was smiling at her; she could see it even in the half-darkness of the motor home._

_“How” She trailed. She was about to ask him how he had known she was just pretending to be asleep, but decided against it. She didn’t want to know how Seth could read her so well. She shook her head and said, “I don’t take that shit…”_

_“Whatever you say, sugar…” Seth just said from the driver’s seat._

_Kate smiled; she couldn’t help it, she sat on the bed and hugged her knees against her chest, thinking about how strange it was to have someone in the motor home with her. What would Seth think if he knew he was the only person besides the vampire killers who had built the secret compartments where she hid her weapons, who had been allowed into the motor home, and that he was the only one she had ever allowed to drive it?_

_He would probably shrug his shoulders, without saying anything about it._

_She realized Seth hadn’t talked a lot that day…and it was all her fault. When she had told Seth to forget what had happened between them she had hurt him. To think she had always believed nothing could really hurt Seth Gecko._

_For a second she’d been able to glimpse fragments of the old Seth in his brown eyes, it had lasted just for a few seconds…only then did she really notice how much had Seth really changed, how much the past six years had somehow mellowed him, had worn his anger out, morphing it in something else…maybe even more dangerous than the fury she had come to know, but it was something darker, more controlled._

_There had been fury, yes…for a second, and then something very similar to physical pain had crossed his features. It hadn't lasted long, though…and then Seth Gecko had morphed under her very eyes in another man; a man who hadn’t talked a lot, hadn’t objected at what she had said, a man who had kept looking around, taking in every detail of the motor home, probably comparing the changes to what he recalled of the vehicle. The only moment where he had resembled the Seth she had known six years before was when they had talked about the flamethrower._

_And then he had fallen asleep…and had had the nightmare and Kate had wondered the horror he had relived in it. She hadn’t asked any question, of course. She knew he wouldn’t answer to that kind of questions, she’d only make him even quieter._

_What the hell was going on with him?_

_“You should rest, Kate…you look like hell” Seth remarked._

_Kate shook her head as she felt her smile widen. It was so typical of Seth showing interest in someone by offering derogatory remarks. Hadn’t he been like that with her father too?_

_Kate closed her eyes. It hurt thinking of her family. It still hurt. It was a pain she knew she would never got used to, a pain she knew she’d never learn to live with; the only thing she had learnt to do about it was ignoring it, pretending it didn’t exist, although there were moments, like that, where it was too difficult to do._

_“Well, ‘Jack’, you look like hell, too…” She said and was satisfied of how casual she sounded._

_She saw Seth smiling at her words, through the rear-view mirror and added, “I know I need the rest…and I know how I look like…I’ll sleep eventually, don’t sweat it…”_

_“Fine, princess. But when dawn comes you’ll drive the son of a bitch…we need to leave the state as soon as possible” Seth said._

_Kate closed her eyes, without bothering to answer to Seth’s words. She’d get some sleep; she always did in the end. The discipline she had imposed on herself and that had allowed her to survive always won, it was stronger…even stronger than her fears._

_She covered herself with the blankets and opened her eyes, watching Seth driving; she was almost mesmerized by Seth’s hands on the wheel. Was it possible that just that morning those same hands had been on her body? Was it possible that those hands had covered her breasts?_

_And why did she tell Seth to forget what had happened? She didn’t want to forget, she didn’t know if she could ever forget…even if she wanted to!_

_She sighed, while her fingers nervously started to pull at hems of the shirt she was wearing…Seth’s shirt._

_It would be a mistake. She knew that. Allowing herself to love Seth and go on with what they had almost done in his apartment would be a mistake. She knew that…her mind kept repeating it. Her mind kept listing over and over the reasons why it’d be a mistake to get involved with Seth._

_She just had to wait for her heart to catch up with her mind and everything would be okay, she thought._

_She just had to stop wanting, craving Seth Gecko…so much that it almost hurt.  
She just had to stop loving him…so much that it was taking her breath away. _

_* * *_

_A diner. It was identical to the hundreds of diners where he had stopped in his life: metal tables covered with colored plastic, slightly uncomfortable chairs and breakfasts served by waitresses bored out of their minds and dressed in awful uniforms._

_Yet Seth Gecko was looking around, almost as if he had never seen a diner in his life. He thought that his enthusiasm was probably due to the fact that it was the first time for the past two days that they were spending more than ten minutes outside the Motor Home._

_They had driven for two days, without stopping unless it was absolutely necessary and even then they had just stopped for a few minutes. They had driven for two days, taking turns to sleep, so that the issue of sharing a bed had been a moot point. They had lived together in the Motor Home, but they hadn’t actually spent a lot of time together, which was fine by him._

_He had needed time to think things out. He had needed time to make some decisions, he had needed time to try and sort out the mess his mind had become ever since Kate had come back into his life._

_He sipped his coffee, while he waited for Kate to come back from the bathroom. He was surprised by the trust Kate had put in him until that moment. Did she realize that he could have stolen the Motor Home and leave her alone in the middle of nowhere, without money or weapons? Did she think about that?_

_It looked like she hadn’t, at least judging by the fact that he was the one with the key of the motherfucker in the parking lot. To think it had all started because of that motor home._

_How things would be different had Richie not killed Gloria, their hostage? Would they have made it to the Titty Twister? Would Richie be still alive? Would he have lost Richie…and himself?_

_He ran a hand thought his hair, deciding to stop that train of thoughts, he knew it wouldn’t do any good…and besides, it couldn’t change the actual events…it couldn’t change the facts…and he needed to focus on them._

_He took the papers Greg had given him from the pocket of his coat and read them…for the umpteenth time._

_Contrary to what both Kate and he had initially thought, the vampires weren’t actually in Vancouver, but in a little town near it: Meadows Lyne, it had been their vampire killers to contact Greg asking for help._

_From what the papers said the vampires, as it often happened, had started by keeping a low profile, opening a couple of bars in the outskirts of town…only to start thinking bigger…they didn’t just feed on customers of their bars or hitchers or the usual dumbasses who got in their way. Meadows Lyne’s vampires wanted more. They wanted Meadows Lyne…all of it…and it looked like they were succeeding in getting it._

_He tilted his head up when he heard Kate’s steps approaching their table; he met her eyes, and greeted her with a nod of his head. Kate creased her brow and asked, “Do you have a radar or something?”_

_Seth sipped coffee from his mug, hiding his smile that way, and saw Kate shaking her head while she sat in front of him and started reading from her menu._

_“No…” He eventually said, “It’s just habit, sugar…”_

_Kate almost smiled at his words---almost, but not quite. Seth noticed how tired she looked: there were deep circles under her eyes, she still had bruises on her face, they were purple and yellow now, making her almost look like she was sick. Yet, to Seth, she looked beautiful._

_“Take a picture, Jack…it’ll last longer…” She said, before sipping her coffee, and the hardness in her voice surprised him. How long had he been staring at her like an idiot?_

_Despite the hardness in her voice, Kate hadn’t used his real name when talking to him and that didn’t surprise Seth. Kate Fuller was a fast learner, she was smart…she might want to have nothing to do with him, she might not talk to him, but she wasn’t going to betray him._

_He flipped her the bird and then smiling said, “I could teach you how…”_

_Kate looked at him puzzled and said, “Come again? Teach me how to do what?”_

_“How to have a radar” He just said._

_Kate looked at him and in her eyes Seth saw fire…and ice, together. He saw the girl she used to be fighting against the woman she had become because of him. They locked eyes and Seth couldn’t help thinking that he couldn’t have looked away not even if he’d wanted to._

_They didn’t talk for long seconds and Seth noticed how time seemed to stretch making seconds become too long, too slow, until Kate looked away and murmured, “No”_

_Breathe. Seth had to take a long breath, as his hand instinctively went under the table to grip Kate’s knee. Kate jumped, but smiled when the waitress came to take their orders._

_He knew his grip on Kate’s knee was probably becoming painful, he knew that…although Kate was still smiling and he did the same, thinking about the fact that Kate was going to have a new shiny bruise to add to her ever growing collection._

_The waitress who, of course, hadn’t noticed a thing, filled their mugs with fresh coffee and left bringing with her the menus, a second later he felt Kate’s hand on his, under the table, and she said between clenched teeth, “What the fuck is your problem, Jack?”_

_When he didn’t answer she rested her back against the chair, she lightly shook her head smiling and stretched a hand to take her cup of coffee._

_“Stop” He hissed, “make a move and I…”_

_“And you what, Jack?” She asked, still smiling, “You break my knee cap?” she rolled her eyes and took a sip from her mug, she kept looking at him and then still holding the mug in her hand added, “Be my guest…”_

_Kate kept smiling and there weren’t signs on her face that he was hurting her. He was gripping the knee with such strength that he wouldn’t be surprised if heard it dislocate from its socket._

_“What the fuck is your problem, Kate?” Seth asked, repeating Kate’s words._

_The waitress came back with their orders, interrupting them. None of them spoke for a second; he was leaning on the table, while Kate was resting her shoulders against the chair, a puzzled look on her face._

_“So?” Seth asked._

_“What?” Kate asked back._

_“Do we want to fuck around here all day?” Seth asked._

_Kate ran a hand through her hair and Seth strengthened his grip on Kate’s knee, she sighed and said, “One day one of those bastards will kill us…”_

_Seth shook his head without talking, Kate played with her mug, while her left hand was still under the table covering his, she looked at him and said, “And maybe we won’t be swift enough to blow our brains out before becoming like them…”_

_Time seemed to stop around them, while Seth could see with his mind’s eyes the images from his recurring nightmare for the past days: Kate being tortured to death by his vampire self._

_“We might fight, Jack. We might have to fight against each other” Kate murmured, “I don’t want to know your tricks…and I don’t want you to know mine…”_

_“Fuck, Kate…” He said in a low voice. He shook his shoulders, trying to ignore the tiny curls of panic starting to crawl inside of him._

_Kate was right. He had thought along the same lines for the past few days: he’d wondered what would happen if vampires killed him while Kate was still with him. That thought had filled his dreams, so much that he had greeted the previous night’s insomnia with open arms._

_“Sounds fair…” He eventually said, looking at Kate who was sipping her coffee._

_Kate nodded, she put the mug on the table, she leant toward him and still smiling she said, “Cool! Now, would you please take that fucking hand away from my knee?”_

_Seth nodded curtly and his grip on Kate’s knee lessened. He wondered why Kate hadn’t reacted. He had seen Kate fighting; he knew how quick her reflexes were…why didn’t she move?_

_He shook his head, and started eating his food, although he couldn’t even taste it. Kate’s words kept echoing in his mind, just like the calm look on her face as he gripped her knee so strongly that he’d almost dislocated it._

_They ate their breakfast in silence and Seth almost expected Kate to ask him for the Motor Home’s keys, toss his bags out of it and left him there. That’s how he wanted to protect her from himself?_

_“Jack?” Kate said, breaking his train of thoughts._

_“What?” He asked without looking at her._

_“Cops” She just said. He looked at her, and Kate pointed with her eyes to something behind him._

_Seth didn’t turn, he kept eating while Kate said, “Two of them, hands on their holsters, they’re looking around.”_

_Seth nodded. It wasn’t the first time, ever since he’d been able to get to Canada that he was in the same place with some cops. The trick was to keep his cool, to fly below their radar._

_He wasn’t aware that his hand was still under the table, over Kate’s knee, until she covered it with hers, grazing its back with her thumb…and before he could do anything, Kate leant toward him, she circled his neck with both her arms, and her lips covered his._

_The surprise didn’t last long and it was soon replaced by fire, the same kind of fire he had experienced a few days before, on his couch, holding Kate in his arms, especially when Kate’s lips parted open, and the kiss became something more than a way to try and hide his face, and the arms circling his neck more than a way to conceal the parts of the tattoo that his sweater couldn’t hide._

_His hands instinctively went up to Kate’s face, tracing her cheekbones with his thumbs, as the kiss deepened. He closed his eyes, while a remote part of him, thought that he was kissing a girl in a diner, a barely legal girl, who was half his age, while cops where not far away from him._

_He felt Kate lightly scrape his lower lip with her teeth, and his right hand went to the nape of her neck, to further deepen the kiss. That girl was going to drive him crazy, he was sure of that. She would succeed where jail and vampires had failed!_

_And for a moment he didn’t care, especially when he felt Kate responding to the kiss with everything she was._

_He could clearly feel his blood leaving his brain and heading south…and then, all of sudden, just like it had started, the kiss ended and Kate moved lightly away from him and he noticed the light swell of her lips and her flushed cheeks, yet her voice was calm while she said, “They’re gone…”_

_Not that he had forgotten about the cops, but he shook his head all the same, trying not to move, cursing the too tight jeans he was wearing._

_“Good…” He just said and was satisfied by the apparent calm in his voice._

_He was horny…he was furious…and was grateful to Kate. It was the second time she covered for him with cops._

_“Jack…is everything alright?” Kate asked after a second._

_“Everything's hunky-dory, princess,” He said. He took some money from the pocket of his coat and put it on the table saying, “We’d better go and stop to the nearest town…”_

_“What for?” She asked._

_“To patrol, sugar…” He said getting up and buttoning his coat, “What else?”_

_He smiled at her and exited the diner, and wasn’t surprised when a few seconds later he heard Kate walking behind him. He stopped next to the Motor Home and turned to face her. Kate had her hands on her hips and was looking at him, a puzzled look on her face._

_Seth leant on the Motor Home, his hands in his coat’s pockets, while Kate was still looking at him, her lips still swollen with their kiss, her eyes lit up with the same fire he could still feel burning inside of him._

_Kate took a step toward him and Seth noticed she was slightly limping. There was fire in Kate’s eyes, but there was fear, as well. She feared him. She feared herself; she feared what was happening between them._

_Vampires. Cops. Nightmares and shadows that filled up their nights and their days…it was what their life was made of…and yet it all looked so far away to Seth when he took a step toward Kate and wordlessly held her in his arms._

_He felt Kate’s arms tentatively circling his waist as she hid her face in the crook of his arm and Seth couldn’t help but caressing her hair. They weren’t talking…there was silence hanging between them, but it was so different than the one that had been their constant companion for the past few days._

_In that parking lot, while the rain started to fall around them, it was all forgotten, it was all forgiven. Without any word spoken._

_It was their breaths, their smiles to speak for them._

_It was their hearts, which spoke the words._

_* * *_

_To say the place they had just stopped in was a town meant insulting every hole Seth had stopped by for the past six years. It was a shit-hole in the middle of nowhere._

_The only thing worse than that poor excuse for a town would be a bar in the middle of the Mexican desert, Seth bitterly thought._

_It was a dark, rainy night. The rain had started falling down that morning and by the time they had stopped to the nearest town it had become a storm, complete with thunders and freezing cold wind. When they had stopped next to the only, surprisingly huge motel of the town, Kate hadn’t commented on the fact that he had spent a few minutes looking at the building and the kind of costumers it had, before deciding to stop there for the night._

_The fact that Kate had produced from one of the big bastard’s many hidden compartments a fake id hadn’t been a surprise. Seth had had time to see money, other fake ids, a wooden cross, which had probably belonged to Jacob and a gun, before she closed the compartment. Kate hadn’t been surprised either when he had retrieved from one of his bags a fake id as well._

_They were two paranoid vampire killers!_

_For once, the motel room had been a nice surprise, and even the problem of sharing a bed had been solved, because there were two beds, two quite large beds, divided by a nightstand…just like in a fucking movie right out of the fifties!_

_The first thing he had done once he had sat on his bed had been opening the nightstand’s drawer: he had taken the Bible and had started flicking through it, looking for information.  
He had soon found out, once he had started killing vampires that one of the means of communications for vampire killers was the motels’ Bibles. One had just to know where and what to look for. He had smiled when he had found the hidden note with the information he had been looking for and had tilted his head up, meeting Kate’s smiling face. _

_Ignoring their previous paranoia they had commented on the vampire killers’ methods, although they had both agreed on the fact that notes hidden in the Bibles were better than other means of communications the vampire killers usually chose: notes on the pay phone stalls or public bathrooms._

_They had had time to take a quick look around in the town – more than quick, actually, it had been supersonic – find out the vampire killers’ headquarter whereabouts, which was the one written on the note, then once they had come back to their room, Kate, on his insistence, had rested for a couple of hours, while he had checked on their weapons and made the stakes for their patrol._

_Hours later they were still walking down that shit-hole, in circle, side by side, alerted to every noise, every smell, anything out of the ordinary._

_The vampires were there. He knew that…and it had taken just a look at Kate to have his suspicions confirmed. And there was something else…someone was spying on them. Seth didn’t know whether Kate had noticed, but he had no doubts about it: he could feel the skin of his back itching and his senses had been on red alert for hours, now._

_The question was, though: who the fuck was spying on them? Were they vampires or humans? And if it was the latter…who were they? Vampire killers? Peeper Toms who wanted to get up close and personal with his 44?_

_Kate was still walking by his side, apparently oblivious of whoever was spying on them; Seth side glanced at her: it looked like sleeping in a real bed had done some good to her. It was either that…or what had happened that morning, the fact that they had been in each other’s arms for a long time outside that diner._

_And if he had to be honest, what had happened outside that diner had been good for him too. To think he’d never thought he needed that kind of stuff._

_Seth Gecko hugging a woman? What a foolish idea!  
Seth Gecko who hugged a woman he hadn’t even had sex with? Pure science fiction!_

_Yet it had happened…and things, when they had broken their hug, soaking wet with rain, but smiling like idiots, had become easier._

_The rest of the journey to the town had been quiet…but the silence hadn’t been heavy, it hadn’t been like the fucking elephant that had been between them after Greg’s visit. On the contrary, it had been a comfortable silence, and while Kate had driven, he’d even rested for a few minutes, without nightmares._

_While he had been making the stakes, that afternoon, he’d even found himself staring at Kate, a couple of times, while she’d been sleeping…and she hadn’t had any nightmares as well._

_Kate’s nightmares hadn’t been a surprise. If a son of a bitch like him had nightmares, and they were so ugly that he woke up with his breath caught in his throat and he sometimes draw blood because his nails dug with too much strength into his palms…why shouldn’t Kate have them?_

_Kate hadn’t had any nightmares that afternoon, she had soundly slept, she hadn’t even moved when he had draped another blanket over her, only to stop and look at her like an idiot for a few seconds._

_He had been so close to her, so fucking close that he could have kissed her._

_And he didn’t even want to start dwelling on why he hadn’t kissed her, especially after what had happened that morning. He hadn’t wanted to dwell on it that afternoon, and sure as hell he couldn’t afford to do that now. Not while on patrol._

_He looked around and noticed a movement and noises coming from an alley on his right. He stopped and Kate did the same. Seth noticed she was already gripping a stake in her right hand, she had gotten closer to him, her face was a mask of concentration and resolve._

_They didn’t need to talk. They slowly approached the alley and Seth noticed that is was scarcely lit; the noises hadn’t stopped, they were muffled but their hearing, trained to pay attention to every noise out of the ordinary caught them all the same._

_They put some distance between them once they entered the alley. The space between them was enough for them to move, but it allowed them to still watch each other’s back. Seth thought for a moment that they hadn’t even done that on purpose, they hadn’t planned anything…it had been something they had done out of instinct._

_The alley smelled bad. It was a thick, sickening smell that was slowly invading Seth nostrils. He had come to hate alleys for the past six years. Nothing good ever came out from alleys._

_Monsters came out from alleys.  
Death came out from alleys. _

_He wasn’t in a rush, if there was something he had learned the hard way for the past few years was not to rush at anything_

_They were so quiet that Seth could clearly hear the vampire’s satisfied moan, as it sucked its victim dry. He could see them now: the two figures, although half hidden behind a bin filled with trash, were getting clearer and clearer as they approached them._

_He looked at Kate and she nodded, getting away from him and moving toward one side of the bin. Seth took another step: the two figures were clearer now: a man and a woman, on the dirty pavement, the woman was astride the man, her lips glued to the man’s neck._

_From where he was, Seth could clearly see the vampire’s hand: her fingers were too long and her nails were like claws and they were digging into the man’s shoulders, drawing blood._

_Seth hated female vampires. Not that he had any fluffy feelings for male vampires, but women were usually quicker, more agile …and fucking strong._

_The vampire seemed to sense his presence, because Seth could clearly hear the smack produced by her lips when they left the man’s throat, and a second later she quickly…all too quickly got up and approached him, showing her face which was grossly similar to a bug’s except for the lips…human, red-blood lips._

_The vampire smiled, showing her fangs, and Seth had to acknowledge they were longer than he’d seen in a very long time. The punch didn’t catch him off guard; it was exactly what he’d expected. Female vampires were quick, swift…but not very smart…not that male vampires were usually ready for M.E.N.S.A either._

_The vampire had the surprise of her fucking life, instead, when he swiftly, while he was still falling to the ground, took the gun from the waistband of his jeans and shot at her. The bullet hit the vampire’s chest, just when he fell to the ground against the wall in front of her._

_For a second nothing happened, they stood still: the vampire tilted her head on a side, then she moved toward him, still looking at him in surprise while he was on the floor, staring at her._

_Then the vampire’s eyes, huge, black, insect-like eyes, which reminded him of his own eyes in his dreams, blinked in surprise and pain and a second later she exploded sending green bits of rotten flesh all over the alley._

_Seth blinked: everything had gone according to his plan, it had been a by the book kill…then why did he feel like something had gone wrong?_

_He shook his head and turned to look at Kate, who was kneeling next to the man’s corpse. The feeling he’d just had, of something gone fucking awry went up a notch: Kate wasn’t moving, she was looking at the man, almost as if she didn’t remember what to do …or didn’t know what the fuck she was doing in that alley._

_It lasted just for a second – one too much for Seth – then Kate snapped out of it and staked the man, but first she took away his wallet from the inner pocket of his coat._

_Everything had gone smoothly…then why did he still feel like there was something wrong…something fucking wrong? Despite those feelings, he couldn’t help smiling at Kate’s skill. She’d acted like a real pro in taking the wallet away from the fucker who had got himself killed by a vampire._

_He was still smiling when Kate, without looking at him, got close to where he was, still looking inside the man’s wallet._

_They were still spied on; there was still something strange, although everything had gone exactly how he’d envisioned it. Seth couldn’t shake that feeling…of something amiss, something out of place away._

_Something amiss…besides his ribs, which he’d probably bruised when he had hit the wall…at least judging by the pain he was feeling…and by how hard it suddenly become to breath._

_“I’m getting too old for this shit…” He said in a low voice._

_Kate knelt in front of him, and Seth was suddenly sure she was avoiding his gaze, even while she said, “He was a cop…”_

_Great! Just. Fucking. Great! There he was, in a darkened alley, on the pavement, under a pouring rain, still holding a smoking gun he’d used to kill a vampire…a fucking vampire with claws and bug-like eyes…a fucking vampire whose only remains was green stinky goo, while just a few inches away from him, lied a cop’s body with a stake in his chest. A cop’s body that wasn’t bursting into flames, yet._

_And he was sitting on his ass, with a couple of bruised ribs._

_Wasn’t it just peachy?_

_Not to mention that they were still being spied on, someone had been spying every single step they had taken ever since they had left their motel room._

_“Jack?” Kate asked._

_Oh, and there was Kate who wasn’t meeting his eyes…and had zoned out…like she’d never done…not even when she’d been wet behind her fucking ears, six years before. It had taken a little eternity for her to stake the pig._

_Seth shook his head, while gritting his teeth in pain as he slowly got up. Yes, he was indeed getting far too old for that shit!_

_“Are you okay?” Kate asked._

_Seth just shrugged his shoulders, regretting it immediately afterwards and said, “I’m peachy, princess. Just peachy…”_

_They had to get the hell away from that alley, find the fuckers who were spying on them, and making them bleed…a lot. And he didn’t give a fuck which color their blood was going to be: whether it was red or green…he just knew they’d bleed under his hands, then they had to get back to their motel room pack their stuff and leave. He’d been in that poor excuse for a town for a few hours and he already hated it._

_He could feel Kate’s look on him: she was worried, she was puzzled. Right now she really looked like the kid she actually was. She didn’t look like the mean fighter he was traveling with; she didn’t resemble the woman who had kissed him breathless that morning in that diner._

_She looked like a girl.  
A girl, who was still not looking at him.   
And it was different than her behavior for the past few days. She hadn’t met his eyes and had been cold…now there wasn’t coldness…now she was just scared. _

_Seth sighed. He looked at Kate once again and while they got out from the alley asked, “How ya feeling?”_

_Kate looked around as she hugged her arms and said, “I’ll be fine when we get the hell away from here.” She shook her head and added, “I don’t’ like it…”_

_Seth just nodded at her words. While they walked to their motel, Seth kept feeling observed…and he didn’t like it._

_Why didn’t they just come out already?  
And why was he under the impression, that whoever it was, whoever was spying on them, whether it was humans or vampires …was up to no good?_

_* * *_

_Despite Seth’s insistence, Kate didn’t want to leave. Not when Seth needed to lie down at least for a few hours._

_“It’s happened before…chill out!” He was saying, sitting on one of the beds._

_The motel room had been a nice surprise: first of all it was clean, big, with two large beds divided by a nightstand. The bathroom was large as well. She had even slept that afternoon, without nightmares._

_She was now emptying one of her bags on her bed, while Seth kept saying he was fine and that they could get to Motor Home and leave._

_Kate wasn’t really listening to him, though. Her mind had frozen over the image of the female vampire punching Seth, sending him flying to the other side of the alley. To be honest it had been just a routine patrol, it had been just a vampire…nothing too big. And she’d seen Seth flying because of a vampire’s punch…she recalled what had happened at the Titty Twister six years before, and something similar had happened a few days before, when they had killed the vampires in the bar, before that fucking vampire killer forced them to leave town._

_There had been nothing different…  
And yet she couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened. _

_She didn’t want to admit, not even to herself, that what had happened in that alley had scared her. She had feared for Seth…and it hadn’t been that hazy feeling she’d felt in the bar they had cleared off from vampires.  
Her fears, a few days before, had been lightened by the knowledge that Seth Gecko was a tough bastard.   
She had yet to see how his resting moments were haunted by nightmares.   
She had still been able to lie to herself and think that what she felt for Seth was something she could deal with…that it was something she could ignore. _

_She hadn’t known how his lips and skin tasted like, she hadn’t known how right, how good it felt to be in his arms._

_When she had seen him fighting that vampire that night, the fear that something might happen to him had crushed her with its violence…with its intensity._

_Staking a cop had been nothing compared to that._

_She kept seeing Seth on the pavement, absolutely still, gun in hand and a calm, detached look in his eyes._

_“Kate! I’m talking to you!” Seth exclaimed, interrupting her musings._

_“Take off your coat” She said and only then did she turn to look at him._

_“Did you hear what I’ve just said? We have to get the hell outta here…and do it now! I don’t know what you think about it…but a staked cop is not my idea of keeping a low profile!”_

_“Oh, you’re still thinking about that…” She replied absentmindedly, taking a few gauzes and small, black plastic bag from her bed._

_“’That’ was a cop!” He said._

_“Let the locals deal with it…if he hasn’t burn up already…didn’t the vampire bit him?”_

_Seth nodded at her words and then said, “She did, but in this shit-hole? They’re gonna notice if one of their cops is missing and when it happens, I’d like not to be here...”_

_Kate snorted while she let fall the bag and the gauzes on Seth’s bed._

_“So…” She asked, “Will you do that…or do I have to?”_

_“Do what? Kate!” Seth said between clenched teeth and then closed his eyes and Kate realized he was really hanging on the last shred of his self-control. She wondered how long he would wait before he dragged her out of there.  
Because Seth was right: leaving that motel, getting away from that town was the only reasonable, logic thing to do. _

_Seth’s concerns weren’t just about the staked cop…actually, he was more concerned about the fact that they’d been followed, spied on all evening. Seth had told her while they were coming back to the Motel, although he shouldn’t have needed…she’d had had the same suspicions._

_They should leave…it was the rational thing to do, it was what under normal circumstances she’d probably already done._

_Too bad there was anything remotely normal in what she had been feeling for the past day…and hours, ever since she’d been in Seth’s arms, that morning._

_For the first time in a very long time she had felt protected.  
For the first time in a very long time she had felt alive. _

_She had clearly felt, heard the walls around her heart shatter and crumble down. For the first time in six years the mission, what had prompted to go on, despite the exhaustion, the pain, the nightmares…didn’t matter to her. The only thing that really mattered to her was the man sitting on the bed, in front of her._

_The man who, just like her, had chosen to turn his back to his old life and welcoming another life made of darkness, pain, blood, stinking alleys and seedy bars…the ones with big neon signs, that often hid monsters’ nests._

_The man, who was sitting on the bed and was impatiently looking at her, was the most important thing to her. The only thing that really mattered to her._

_Seth slowly blinked his eyes open and asked, “What’s wrong with you, Kate?”_

_Kate tilted her head down, refusing to look at him. What was supposed to tell him…that a simple, stupid accident during a patrol had frightened her? Should she tell Seth that for a moment she had forgotten the man’s body on the pavement? Should she tell him that panic had taken over…just like that night at the Titty Twister?_

_“They’re all dead because of me…” She whispered and blinked in surprise at her own words._

_Seth shook his head; puzzled…he didn’t have a clue about what she was referring to. He didn’t speak, thought, but he slowly started to put off his coat._

_“I’ve thought about it, …” She said after a second. She sat on the bed, next to him, Seth looked at her for a second and then nodded silently inviting her to go on talking while he started taking off his sweater._

_“We could have made it …all of us…if Sex Machine hadn’t been bitten”_

_Seth snorted and Kate wasn’t sure whether it was due to her words or to the movements he was making to get rid of the sweater._

_“It was my first vampire. Bodies surrounded us, blood…you guys were killing so many of them and I couldn’t even stake the fucker. I didn’t have the guts…he looked so peaceful”_

_Seth was looking at her, now…and had finally freed himself from the sweater. He was naked from the waist up and Kate moved behind him, to start bandaging his torso. Only then did she notice the huge bruises on his back and shoulders._

_Shit…_

_She thought, shaking her head. She sighed and continued, “I’ve thought back at what happened…and the only thing that makes sense is that he was bitten because of me…because I distracted him. It was my fault…what happened later…is my fault. All of it.”_

_She didn’t wait for Seth to speak. She touched his hips with her fingers and then his back and abdomen, without even noticing that he’d started. Without even noticing at the beginning how soft his skin was._

_Seth didn’t talk while she was touching him, she lightly touched his ribs and she noticed his light shudder._

_“They don’t seem broken to me, I think you’ll just need to take it easy for a few hours” She said, as if nothing happened, as if she hadn’t just told him what had been haunting her for the past six years._

_As if she hadn’t said out loud, for the first time, the truth: that she was responsible for her father and brother’s death._

_She didn’t look at Seth while she reached for the gauze to start bandaging his torso. She didn’t have the guts to look at him…not now. She didn’t expect him to say anything…she wasn’t even sure she wanted to listen to what he might say._

_“I’m going to take a shower…” It was the only thing Seth said after a second. He didn’t wait for her to talk and Kate just looked at him as he got up and got to the bathroom, closing the door behind him._

_Without looking at her.  
Without saying a word to her. _

_She stood still hearing the water from the shower starting to fall. Kate kept looking at that closed door, wishing Seth had said something…anything to her. She was both grateful and furious at the man’s silence._

_She stood still, kneeling on that bed, holding a roll of gauze in her hands, while her eyes were stinging with unshed tears._

_She had really thought she hadn’t any tears left, that she didn’t even know how to cry, any more.  
It was hard, though, fighting back tears, now. _

_She had forgotten how to cry.  
She had forgotten how tears tasted like. _

_They burned._

_They were burning her eyes and her throat.  
They were burning what was left of her heart…what was left of her soul. _

_* * *_

_Who the fuck the man in the mirror was?  
He looked like Seth Gecko: he looked like the son of a bitch, the killer, the mean bastard who had bloodied Texas trying to get across the border to Mexico. _

_It wasn’t him, though. It couldn’t possibly be Seth Gecko._

_Because Seth Gecko hadn’t been a coward. Ever. Seth Gecko didn’t hide. Not in a motel room’s bath room of a town in the middle of nowhere._

_The man in the mirror looked tired, pale, there were lines of pain around his eyes.  
And he was a coward.   
A coward who had chickened out and had gone hiding in a fucking bathroom._

_It was official: Kate was frightened.  
*His* Kate was frightened. She’d kept acting weird ever since they had gotten out from that alley, and things had gotten weirder and weirder when they’d come back to their motel room and she’d refused to leave. She’d refused to leave even when it was clear that they weren’t safe in that town. _

_She’d refused to leave, claiming that it was him who needed the rest because he’d been wounded!_

_Kate was worried about him and she was being completely irrational about it._

_If he had to be honest, the vampire had been a mean, strong bitch. The punch had been strong and yes, the pain he was feeling wasn’t a walk in the park, but that wasn’t the first time he bruised a couple of ribs!_

_He’d been wounded before; he’d fought in even lesser shape, for fuck’s sake!_

_He was a tough bastard. He was used to take as much as he gave._

_And Kate was supposed to know about that. She was the only one who had seen him fighting, she was the only one who knew…and yet in her eyes he’d just read worry and panic…for him._

_And her worry, her panic had upset him and that feeling had become something more, something huge and nameless that had started crawling and biting and scraping inside of him when Kate had started talking about the Titty Twister and what had happened that night._

_She felt guilty. Kate believed she was responsible for those people’s death, for the death of her family._

_Kate’s words had sounded a fucking lot like a confession.  
And he’d been able to hear the pain in them, the remorse, and the fear. _

_Fear…  
Once again for him. _

_No one had worried for him for such a long time. Seth was used to being feared, he’d spent his adult life scaring people, the more the better for his job. No one, though, had feared for him. Not even Richie. The son of a bitch had loved him…but he hadn’t feared for him. He’d always been the big brother to him, more than able to take care of himself._

_Seth closed his eyes for a second: he’d rather see the icy look in Kate’s eyes, just like it had happened since they’d met again._

_He’d rather have Kate reminding him that sooner or later one of them…possibly both of them were going to get killed by vampires, just like she had done that morning._

_The girl who had just talked…  
What the hell was he supposed to tell her?_

_He opened his eyes and still he had troubles recognizing the man in the mirror._

_Seth Gecko would have shrugged his shoulders at Kate’s words, telling her to get a grip, telling her that shit happened._

_Seth Gecko wouldn’t have given a fuck about Kate’s feelings, about her guilt.  
The man in the mirror cared. _

_But he didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know what to say._

_He blinked as he could hear the water in the shower falling, he turned his back at the man in the mirror, and he slowly finished to undress, clenching his jaws when a new wave of pain hit him._

_Damn vampires. Fucking goddamned vampires!_

_He started when he entered the shower stall as the hot water touched his skin; what was he supposed to tell Kate, that it wasn’t her fault? What he was supposed to tell her…that she’d just been a frightened kid, taken hostage with her family by two criminals?  
Would it make any difference to her?_

_Kate had killed her own brother; she had seen his body exploding…  
And she felt guilty. _

_What he was supposed to tell her? That it had happened a long time ago and laying blames wouldn’t change shit?_

_Or maybe he should tell her that if she really wanted to lay the blame for her family’s death on someone, she should blame him?_

_What was he supposed to tell her…that she’d still have a father and a brother if he hadn’t decided he needed the motor home and its owners? That she would be a regular girl, without fucking lash’s marks on her back if he hadn’t fucked up her life?_

_Seth Gecko wouldn’t have said that, he wouldn’t have even thought along those lines. Seth Gecko didn’t believe in guilt, he had only cared about himself, his brother and their money._

_He blinked his eyes; he hadn’t even realized he hadn’t been moving and that he was keeping his hands closed in tight fists against his thighs and that he hadn’t even felt the hot water washing over him._

_His mind, his heart was elsewhere, running after words he hadn’t had the courage to say. Seth Gecko hadn’t believed in guilt, once…he’d never known its taste, he’d never known its smell._

_A few days before, while he’d tended Kate’s wounds, he’d believed what he’d been feeling was remorse. He’d believed he was feeling guilty.  
He’d been wrong.   
He still recalled how calm he’d felt, despite the light trembling of hands. Guilt hadn’t had any taste, then. It hadn’t smelled, it hadn’t had any texture. _

_Bullshit…. all of it. Truth was feeling guilty hurt…it hurt like a bitch. Truth was guilt and remorse burned._

_They burned like that shower’s hot water, like the throbbing pain on his ribs. Guilt and remorse were bitter, just like the fucking lump he could feel in his throat, which was forcing him to keep gulping to breathe._

_Guilt and remorse were horrifying, just like the knowledge that suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks that he hadn’t really changed, after all. He was still a bastard. He realized he’d been so scared that he’d left Kate, alone._

_Alone…when she really needed him, just like it had happened in Mexico.  
Alone…with her demons.   
Alone…with her sorrow. _

_Chapter 3  
-A break-_

_On broken wings I'm falling  
And it won't be long  
The skin on me is burning  
By the fires of the sun_

_She had forgotten what it was like to just look at the sky at night. Kate hugged her knees, resting her back against the wall. She was sitting on the stairs of the motel, just a few feet away from the parking lot. It was the only dry place, covered with a canopy of sloping tiles. She was sitting alone, just looking at the rain fall._

_There had been a time where she had loved watching the rain fall, she had loved night time, she had even loved storms, not fearing thunders. That had been until her mother had died, killed in a car accident because of the rain. That had been until she had discovered what hid in the darkness. That had been until she’d been left alone, completely alone and had glimpsed the horror revealed by lightings when they lit up the darkest alleys of the towns where she stopped to do her job._

_It had been years since the last time she had stopped and had looked, really looked at the night, years since she had enjoyed it, rather than feared and waited for it._

_Her eyes were dry. Tears hadn’t come. Her eyes had kept stinging, burning, but they had remained dry and the only thing she had been able to do had been getting out from that room, rain notwithstanding._

_A part of her had just wished to get into her motor home, start it and going away.  
Part of her had just wished she could forget she had met Seth again. Part of her had wished she could just forget that for a few days she had felt alive…in love.   
Normal._

_It was useless to bullshit around the issue: Seth Gecko had ruined her life, six years before and yet she had fallen for him._

_She had fallen for the killer who had aimed a gun at her the first time they had met. She had fallen for the black dressed man who had reappeared into her life, saving her, just a few days before._

_Truth was that although she had been so lonely for such long time she had quickly…all too quickly gotten used not to being alone any more.  
And she had forgotten how she had survived ever since she had been left alone in Mexico. _

_The fact that she was sitting on the stairs of a motel, looking at the rain falling down was a proof of it.  
The fact that she had been frightened for Seth in that alley was another proof. _

_That night had proved her wrong…big time._

_"Kate!"_

_She clearly heard Seth’s voice; he almost sounded…worried. For her._

_She sighed, tightening her coat around her slender frame.  
She wasn’t angry at Seth. She hadn’t said those things expecting him to say something. She didn’t even know why she had talked. _

_It had happened…and it had been natural.  
Just like it had become natural to her, the fact that Seth’s face was the first…the only one she saw when she woke up. _

_Just like it had been natural closing her eyes while she had been in his arms that morning, and feeling safe, protected, loved._

_“Kate! Answer me!” Seth’s voice was louder now, as he called her name._

_What had happened in that alley was dangerous…fucking dangerous. She couldn’t afford such weakness, not if she wanted to go on with that kind of life. And that was the only life she knew by now. She barely recalled what her life had been like before the Titty Twister._

_And if she had to be honest, she had troubles recalling the last six years of her life, now. It was almost as if she had sleepwalked through them. Where had she been ten days before? What had she done? She didn’t remember._

_It was almost as if her life had started over again when she had opened her eyes in Seth’s bedroom. Everything from that moment on was clear, each moment, each smell, each color…each feeling.  
It was all vivid. It was all crystal clear. _

_And she couldn’t afford that. It was too much of a luxury for her.  
Truth was she had to give up on Seth. She had to. _

_“Kate, dammit!”_

_She blinked and tried to shake away those thoughts and that little voice which had whispered those words straight to her heart._

_“I’m here!” She loudly said, ignoring the angry voices coming from some of the rooms._

_She didn’t turn when she heard Seth’s steps approaching her. She closed her eyes for a second. No. Although everything in her was screaming that she had to give up on Seth, that she had to give up on what she felt for him…she wasn’t ready to make him go away, she couldn’t even thinking about not having him into her life._

_She wasn’t ready to be alone, again._

_But she couldn’t let what had happened that night in the motel room to happen again. She couldn’t afford to let her feelings get in the way._

_Because she was sure Seth would leave her one way or another.  
Because Seth was a bastard…  
And because although he was a bastard…he wasn’t a fucking bastard. Hadn’t he used those words when he had left her the first time?_

_She didn’t move when Seth stopped behind her, and she forced herself not to close her eyes…  
Why his mere presence, why the fact that he was next to her, in that moment, was bringing her back to that morning, to what she had felt in the diner’s parking lot? _

_Safe.  
Protected.   
In love. _

_A thief, a killer, a bastard...was the only person who could make her feel that way...Kate thought that she'd have probably laughed at the idea, once. When she still didn't know Seth._

_“It’s still raining” Seth said, sitting next to her on the stairs._

_Kate just shrugged; she didn’t look at Seth but moved away, giving him space to better sit next to her._

_“I’ve been looking for you” He said after a moment of silence._

_“I needed to get out…” She answered._

_Only then did she turn to look at him: Seth looked like had been a while under hot water, and she could see how the lines around his mouth had become more pronounced. She wasn’t surprised in realizing that without even wanting it, she had learned to read him quite well, in just a few days.  
She could read his body and how it revealed what was going on inside his mind. She could read him like an open book, and she couldn’t help wondering whether it was the same for him.   
What could he see on her face in that moment? Could he see how desperately she needed him? And how desperately it frightened her?  
Seth hadn’t answered to her words, he had just nodded and tilted his head up looking at the sky.   
“I thought you had decided to leave” He said without looking at her.   
“Nah…” She commented, “And leaving you in this flophouse? I’m a bitch…but not that much, Jack…”  
Seth looked at her and a half smile crept on his lips. Yes, she decided, she was an open book to him as well.   
“Thought you wanted to stitch me up” He added, chancing subject. He was still smiling, but it was a strange one, different than the smiles he had seen on his face for the past few days.   
She had seen him smile a real smile, once. It had happened six years before, when he had felt like a free man, once they had crossed the border, and it had been a smile which had come back to haunt her dreams, forcing her to wake up…to try and get away from those images.   
“And I thought you didn’t want to” She said, and she wasn’t even aware that she was smiling as well.   
Seth lightly shrugged his shoulders, Kate ran a hand through her hair and nodded. She tried to get up, but Seth stopped her by placing a hand on her knee, the same knee he had gripped that morning, to make her talk.  
Kate just looked at him, Seth averted his gaze, he almost looked embarrassed when he said, “Wait…it’s been a fucking long time, since I enjoyed the night…”  
That…that man couldn’t be Seth!  
He couldn’t be the killer, the robber, the kidnapper, the vampire killer she knew!  
“Se…” She started, then gritted her teeth and said, “Jack…if…”  
“Shut up, Kate…” Seth said. He smiled again and it was a real smile, one that reached his eyes.   
And his hand was still standing on her knee.   
How could it be that just a few minutes before she had promised to herself not to allow her feelings to Seth to get in the way with her life, and in that very moment, instead, she was ready to follow him everywhere…to the hell if necessary?  
Yet…  
Yet Seth didn’t want to bring her to hell…  
Not that time.   
Not that night.   
Seth just wanted to stay outside and look at the night, enjoy the night. With her…for her, probably.   
“What if they see us?” She asked.  
Seth snorted. “They sure know where we are. They know how we look like and what we do, staying here won’t change shit…”  
Kate just nodded at his words, she was dimly aware of the fact that Seth’s hand was still on her knee and that – and she wouldn’t say when it had happened, exactly- the space between them on the stairs had further shortened…and even if Seth had noticed those things he didn’t attempt to move away from her.   
And she didn’t have the strength to move away from him, either...not in that moment. She didn’t have the strength to pretend, to hide…she could just be herself, she just had the strength to be Kate Fuller.   
So she didn’t talk, she tilted her head up and watched the rain fall, feeling Seth’s look on her.   
She wasn’t sure how long they stayed there, feeling the colors, the smells of that rainy night, forgetting, for once, the dangers hidden in it.   
Later on, she recalled how neither of them moved at the beginning and how, eventually, Seth did: he drooped an arm around her shoulders and held her at him, as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Just like it had happened that morning…and just like then, she closed her eyes, cradled by Seth’s arms.   
Just like that morning, she felt safe.  
Just like that morning, she felt protected.   
Just like that morning, she felt in love.   
She had been wrong. She was following Seth to hell. Again.   
And she didn’t care.   
* * *  
His father would call him a pussy.  
Richie…well, Richie would do the same thing…more or less.   
He was sitting on a motel’s stone step, with a girl…a woman he wanted.  
A girl…a woman he had fallen in love with…and the only thing he could do…the only thing he had managed to do, had been drooping an arm around her shoulders!  
How come he acted like a fucking boy scout with Kate Fuller? Why did he act like a fucking boy-scout on an emotional roller coaster?  
When he had finally found the guts to get out from the bathroom, he had found the room empty and for an instant he had believed Kate had left.   
Not that he wouldn’t understand if she left. He’d follow her…he’d find her, but he’d understand why she had left.   
It hadn’t happened. Kate hadn’t left him. Not physically at least. He had found her almost right away. He had seen her sitting on a step, looking lost and for the first time since their paths had crossed, she had looked vulnerable.   
And afraid.   
She had been afraid of him, that time.   
He had called her aloud, because he hadn’t known what else to do.   
She’d been so lost in thought that she hadn’t even realized that he’d been spying on her. He had gotten close to her and all his plans to apologize to her had vanished when their eyes had met.   
Kate Fuller was a vampire killer. She was damn good at what she did. He had seen her fighting for hours, and she never let her guard down. Even for the past few days, while they were in the Motor Home, Kate had never let her guard down. Ever.   
That night, instead, she had repeatedly done that…because of him. For him.   
It had been then, he had decided it wasn’t apologies what Kate needed. If he had to be honest, he wasn’t sure he knew what, exactly, Kate needed. What was happening between Kate and he – whatever it was – was new to him; so all he had been able to do was sitting next to her…letting her watching the sky and the rain falling down.   
The only thing he had been able to do, despite he felt like going crazy with how much he wanted her, had been drooping an arm around her shoulders, like a fucking boy scout, like the person he had never been, the person he had believed he could never be.   
Kate had her eyes closed, now. Seth, though, knew she wasn’t sleeping, just like he knew that she wasn’t afraid, not in that moment. He lightly moved and she immediately did the same, jerking her head up to look at him.   
There wasn’t fear in Kate’s eyes, not of him…or for him. And for the first time since they had met each other again, he couldn’t read the look in her eyes.   
“Want to come back to our room?” She asked.   
Seth shrugged his shoulders, causing a new wave of pain from his ribs. Kate had to notice that, because, she took his hand and stood up, forcing him to do the same before saying, “Come with me, Jack…”  
“Kate…” He started.   
Kate smiled, she was still holding his hand when she got closer to him, so much that she whispered in his ear, “Shut up, Seth…”  
Kate’s voice had been a throaty whisper while she had uttered those words…and its tone…well, that was unmistakable. It was a tone of voice that was setting his blood, his skin on fire. He didn’t move, though. It was Kate who imperceptibly moved, grazing his jaw with her lips.   
Did that girl know what she was doing? Did she, really? Did she know what she was doing to him? Did she know she was playing with fire?  
He didn’t have to move. He couldn’t.   
They were too close. Too. Fucking. Close.   
If he moved in that moment, he’d kiss her. And he knew, with absolute certainty that they wouldn’t stop. Not that time…not that night.   
If he moved, they’d give the motherfuckers who had been spying on them for hours, a real show to watch.   
“Kate” He just said, and his voice was as low as hers. Kate didn’t answer him, she just took a step back and Seth noticed when he looked at her, that there wasn’t ice any more in Kate’s hazel eyes.   
The only thing he could see in her eyes was desire.   
Fire.   
Kate wasn’t playing with fire, he realized as they wordlessly started walking toward their room.   
Kate Fuller was fire.   
* * *  
She was going crazy.   
Her heart was going crazy.  
Her body was going crazier and crazier with every passing minute.   
Kate had had men before that night. She had thought she knew what desire was like before that night. Truth was that what had felt with those men, had been nothing compared to what she was feeling now, it was nothing compared to the fire, the liquid fire that was slowly consuming her.  
She was going crazy…it was the wait…the seconds that were stretching into liquid eternities, while even walking to their room was exciting.   
She couldn’t even hear the rain falling down all around them, all she was aware of was their breaths, their steps, the feeling of their shoulders touching as they walked, together, to their room.   
She was going crazy.   
There was no past that night. No discipline, no self-control, no sorrow. It was almost as if it had faded, vanished.   
Kate Fuller craved.   
She craved the man who was walking next to her.   
She wanted to know how his skin tasted like, she craved his lips, she needed to feel breathless for having been kissed by Seth.   
She craved his body, she needed to feel their bodies moving together, as one, and wanted to look at him, as it happened.   
They stopped in front of their room and only then did Kate realize she hadn’t let go of Seth’s hand, but…they had entwined fingers, Seth too looked like he had just realized that. He let go of her hand and Kate read surprise for a second in his eyes, then he tilted his head down, and stifled his hands in the pockets of his coat to take the keys.   
Kate held her breath as they got into their room and Seth softly closed the door behind them.   
It was everything as they had left it…it was everything like it had been when she had talked, when she had been afraid.   
They were closer to each other, now. Their shoulders were still touching, and yet, for a second nothing happened. They both stayed still, the only sounds in the room were their breaths and the soft tickling of the rain against the window.   
Kate felt Seth’s look on her and then, a second later, he closed the distance between them by putting an arm around her waist, bringing her even closer to him.   
It only took that movement, to make him grit his teeth in pain. It only took that movement and they both recalled why they were still in that motel room and not on the motor home, far away from that town.   
“Damn…” Seth hissed.   
Yet, he hadn’t let go of her. His arm was still circling her waist, he was still holding her, and it didn’t look like he wanted to let her go anytime soon.   
Kate closed her eyes for a second: she could still feel that liquid fire burning inside of her, it was still consuming her, throbbing in her belly, flowing into her veins.   
Yet, her voice was calm when she said, “Seth…”  
She opened her eyes and looked at Seth, as he tilted his head down to meet her eyes. Neither of them talked. They didn’t need to. The man blinked and then let go of her, before muttering, “Motherfucking vampires”  
Incredibly enough, though, he was smiling as he took some steps and sat on his bed before slipping out of his coat.   
And she was smiling too.   
She didn’t even know why she was smiling…or why Seth was…yet she couldn’t help it. It was natural to her.   
She walked to the bed, and just like she had done before, she sat on it and moved behind Seth.   
Seth’s voice was low and husky when he talked, although in a very different manner than a few minutes before, when he had said her name, outside their room.   
“You were just a kid, Kate,” He said, “and you were frightened. Fuck, I was scared…we all were!”  
Seth started to slid off of his thick, black sweater, and Kate who was having trouble swallowing past the sudden lump in her throat, got closer to him and helped him out of it. She held the sweater in her hands as Seth said, “And besides that wasn’t your first vampire…”  
Seth turned his head to look at her and Kate noticed the look in his eyes: he almost looked like…  
Was it possible that he was proud of her? Because she could clearly read pride in his eyes and hear it in his voice when he said, “The fucker at the entrance…did you forget about him?”  
Kate tilted her head down, while she put Seth’s sweater next to her, and blinked when she recalled how frightened she had been in that moment. She recalled how everyone in the bar, had been busy fighting vampires…and how she had been alone, for the first time, against one of them.   
“My cross…” It was the only thing she said. She recalled how she had acted out of instinct and had stuffed the little golden cross, into the vampire’s mouth.   
Oblivious of Seth’s look on her, her hand went to her neck. She didn’t wear any jewelry, nothing except for the thin golden necklace, she had worn that night.   
“You were just a kid…” Seth repeated.   
Kate shook her head, taking the gauze from the bed. She grazed Seth’s back first and then his abdomen. She didn’t think there was anything broken, and was sure they’d notice if there had been an internal hemorrhage, yet it hadn’t been a walk in the park for him, if he was hurting.   
“It doesn’t change what happened, Seth,” She eventually said. Seth didn’t answer but Kate noticed how he closed his eyes. She started bandaging his torso trying not to hurt him in the process.   
Neither of them spoke, their previous words were still hovering over them in the room. How was it possible that just a few minutes before she had felt like going crazy with desire, she had been sure that nothing and no one could stop them that night, she had been sure that the past six years had stopped mattering and right now, she couldn’t even breathe?  
How was it possible that they had been both smiling, without any apparent reason, except for the fact that they were together, while right now she was, once again, fighting not to cry?  
To think she had been sure she had run out of tears!  
She startled when Seth blocked her by grabbing her wrist. He still wasn’t talking and Kate was grateful. He didn’t move, didn’t talk while she, without even noticing, further shortened the distance between them and circled his shoulders with an arm, before she rested her forehead against the nape of his neck.   
Later on, she thought about that night, and about that silent hug and how it had looked like it had gone on for hours.   
There were just the two of them…and what they felt: the feelings that were binding them, the feelings that had become almost impossible to ignore for both of them.   
* * *  
On skinned knees I’m bleeding  
And it won’t be long.   
I got to find that meaning and I’ll search  
For so long.   
 They were roaring.  
Demons, vampires. They were roaring. They looked like giant anthropomorphic bats.  
They were crazy…they were craving for their bloods.   
Blood….she could feel it on her skin, it was flowing in long thick trails on her face, like tears.   
The tears…the ones she wanted and couldn’t, wouldn’t shed…not if she wanted to get out of there alive.   
Kate was afraid; and the fear was like a solid, real creature inside of her. Fear was as real as the monsters that were around Seth and she, now.   
Solid.   
Fear was solid, almost like Seth’s back and shoulders, pressed against her body.   
They had to fight or they’d become like them.   
They had to fight or they’d become monsters, godless pieces of shit just like those who had destroyed their families.   
They were roaring as Seth was holding her at him, gripping an empty gun, aiming it at those monsters almost as if it was a Cross.   
Seth was fighting…even now, while they were seeking refuge under that weak beam of light and he was shouting at her to shoot the holes.   
Sunlight.  
If there was the sun, if there was the light…why weren’t they safe, yet?  
The vampires were roaring…and they were hungry.   
They were hungry for them, they were craving their flesh, their blood, their very souls.   
She had a gun too and just like Seth she was gripping it, aiming it against those monsters.   
How many of them, still?  
How long would they last?_

_“Katie!”_

_The brunette stopped, turning her head, looking for whom had called her name.  
Who was calling her name?  
She knew that voice. Her heart knew it…recognized it…loathed it._

_“Kate?” It was Seth’s voice. It was Seth calling her name, now.  
She knew Seth’s voice: her heart recognized it. Seth’s voice was low, now. Throaty. _

_“Katie?!”  
The other voice. She knew the other voice…a male voice. He was calling her name, he was barking her name…he made it sound dirty, with blood and tears and shame. _

_“Kate, dammit!” It was Seth, now. He was shouting her name. Calling for her.  
Her Seth.   
He was calling her name. She had to turn to Seth. She had to look at Seth. _

_“Katie!”  
Kate closed her eyes. She knew the other voice: it was darkness. It was blood.   
It was pain.   
And cries. _

_Seth was crying out, now. Kate opened her eyes, shivering as she looked around.  
Why was she alone, now?   
Her back had been against Seth’s …and it had been real, it had been *true* as much as the vampires’ roars. It had been truer than fear. Truer than the blood that was trailing down on her face.   
Why had she gotten away from him? And while she was at it…what the fuck was she doing on the Titty Twister’s tables?_

_“Seth!” It was the only thing she said._

_He was still fighting, he moved quickly and as he did that, his long black coat moved with him, almost like a cape…almost as if he was the hero of a fucking novel.  
Seth kept hitting vampires, kept killing them as she leapt and ran to him, oblivious of the vampires, oblivious of the voice…the other one. It was calling her.  
He was still calling her. _

_“Seth” She whispered, as she got close to him.  
Blood.  
Seth was…blood.  
There was blood pouring out from his neck, where he had been bitten.   
Unable to believe in what she was seeing, she shortened the distance between them. Her heart…did she really believe it had shattered when his brother had died?  
She startled, when Seth grabbed her arm, only to move her behind him, under that beam of light.   
Away from him..  
“Did they bit you?” She asked.   
That couldn’t be happening. Not to him, not to Seth!  
He turned his head and looked at her, it only lasted a second and then he nodded without talking, answering that way to her silent question.   
“Oh, no…no” Her voice…her voice was scratching her throat as she said those words, and her skin became numb, so much that she almost didn’t realize that her grip on the gun was weakening.   
“Not now, Kate!” Seth exclaimed, shattering her numbness with the edge in his voice.  
Even now, he was still fighting, pushing away vampires with his hands, pushing them away from him…and her. _

_“Katie? I did it for you! Don’t you like my gift?”  
It was that voice, again: he was taunting her, haunting her…killing her soul.   
That voice came from darkness…it was darkness and was full of a sick mirth.   
He was enjoying his gift to her as her heart was shattering…yet, despite everything, Seth kept fighting.  
He was fighting as his blood flowed, oozed from his neck. _

_She knew that voice…her skin was screaming with loathing for it.  
That voice was burning her soul. _

_Kate blinked, blocking those thoughts, and looked at Seth. She had to think about Seth…he was the one that mattered, now.  
“How long?” She asked.   
Seth stopped and for some strange reason even the vampires around them did the same.   
They were waiting, she could read it in their red eyes, on their bat-like faces. They were waiting for Seth’s answer. They were enjoying the show…feeding on the heart-ache they could probably feel in the room.   
“Seth?” She repeated.   
He refused to look at her turning his head…so that the only thing she could really see was the angry wound on his neck…and his blood.   
His blood was flowing, it was creating blood-red flames that were mingling with the black ones of his tattoo.   
Seth tilted his head down and said in low voice, “I don’t know, Kate…”  
“No!” She cried dropping the gun. She wanted to erase Seth’s words. Her hands went on her face first and then on her ears, scratching them with her nails, almost as if it could be possible to scratch Seth’s words…and the tone of his voice as he had said those words.   
“No…no…no!” She screamed, over and over.   
And the vampires around them, screamed…with her.   
They laughed at her.   
They roared.   
Suddenly, Seth’s strong hands grabbed her by her wrists, taking her away from that weak light, forcing her to stop scratching her face.   
Kate looked at him: he was calm, he was keeping his shit together…even now.   
“Not. Now. Kate!” He hissed between clenched teeth. Kate nodded.   
Vampires…there were vampires to fight…and kill. She looked around and couldn’t help frowning: the vampires had disappeared, vanished into thin air.   
All of them…except one.   
Seth. _

_“Why aren’t you screaming now, Katie? You have to, it’s time!”  
It was that voice, again.   
It was the voice of heart-ache. It came from the shadows.   
It was the voice of her nightmares. _

_Kate was having a dream._

_She recalled now. She knew, now. She had been at the Titty Twister. Seth had been there, with her…and vampires had roared. But there hadn’t been voices.  
Just fear.   
They had gotten out of there, alive.   
It was a dream. It was a nightmare. _

_Then why couldn’t she wake up from it? Why could she feel her heart hammering in her throat, ready to burst in her chest for the sorrow she was feeling?_

_“Oh, God…no, please, no!” She whispered.  
Seth shook his head. “I don’t know how long do we have…”  
Kate wanted to scream at him that it was a dream, that what they were living wasn’t real…that she would soon wake up and he’d be alive.   
But she couldn’t. She kept looking at Seth as he knelt and took the gun from the floor.   
His movements were slow, excruciatingly so.   
“What I know is that I don’t wanna become as one of those fucks…” He continued as he got up.   
He was looking at her, now…and it was the man she had met again just a few days before: paler, with more lines around his eyes and mouth, and more grey on his temples… but it was him.   
Her Seth.   
In her dream, Kate closed her eyes when Seth put the gun in her hand.   
“Please…” They both whispered and Kate, in her dream, opened her eyes…and felt the gun’s weight in her hand.   
And she was surprised realizing that it burned.   
“No” She shook her head, getting close to him. She wanted to shake him, she irrationally hoped that she could wake herself up that way.   
Seth took a step back. Almost as if she was the dangerous one. Almost as if she was the one that was muting…the one rotting from the inside.   
“It’s what it needs to be done, you know that!” He said.   
And the blood, his blood, kept mercilessly flowing, damping his skin .   
“You can’t” She started but stopped, blinking back tears.   
She wanted to tell him, but she didn’t have time to, because Seth interrupted her by saying, “I have to! We both do…don’t you get it?”  
“No! It’s you that don’t understand!” She screamed. She moved toward him and Seth didn’t attempt to move away from her, that time. She closed the distance between them and in a second she was in his arms, saying in a low voice, “I love you, Seth…I can’t do that!”  
She tilted her head up and watched as he closed his eyes, and a second later she felt his fingers in her hair.   
In her dream, she closed her eyes, nestling her head against Seth’s shoulder.   
In her dream, Seth’s heartbeat was weakening.   
In her dream, Seth was losing his battle against the demon inside of him.   
When he tilted her head up by her hair, forcing her to look at him, she didn’t feel pain. She was just surprised…and the surprise turned into something bitter and burning in her heart when he hissed against her lips, “If you do, then pull that fucking trigger!”  
She shook her head no and she lost herself in his eyes.   
Even in her dream, Seth’s eyes were dark, were magnetic.   
She clutched the gun against her chest and Seth pushed her away from him. Kate fell on the floor, while Seth got to the door and started banging on it with all his might.   
She slowly got up, she hadn’t taken but a step when Seth stopped her saying, “Stay away from me, Kate! I’m dead! I’m one of them, now!”  
“No!” She cried.   
They were breaking her heart. They had bit him…but it was her who was having her heart broken, shattered.   
“Seth, listen to me!” She started.   
“Pull that trigger, Kate!” He said, without looking at her and she felt her heart shattering some more, when she noticed how low Seth’s voice was, now. How guttural   
No.   
She didn’t want to see him dying.   
She didn’t want to kill him.   
She didn’t want to see what was going to happen to him.   
Yet, although she was trying, she couldn’t wake up. She was trapped into that nightmare and its walls were getting tougher and tougher instead of fading with the knowledge that she was dreaming.   
The walls of her dream were solid…and were making it all more vivid and painful.   
She dropped the gun and walked toward the man. Seth had gotten away from the door.   
“Go away, Kate…go home!” He said with his back turned at her. He was panting with the effort it was taking for him to talk. He was panting with anger and sorrow.   
Kate could feel it, hear it…she could see it. She could see Seth’s shoulders starting to curve for the effort to keep fighting the demon that was invading his body.   
Ever the fighter, her Seth. Always the fighter…even now.   
“No” She just said, walking toward him. She wanted to run to him, hold him, before it was too late…but her legs refused to cooperate.   
Seth started when eventually she was close to him, again, behind him and touched his shoulder. He slowly turned his head to look at her and Kate saw how much of the effort to keep the monster away, not to let him win, was showing on Seth’s face. Underneath it all Kate could see the heartache…and the tiredness.   
“Go away…” Seth said, and there was something akin pure fear in his voice, now. “I don’t know how long I can…” He stopped and shook his head when she, ignoring his words, circled his shoulders with an arm, from behind and hid her face between his shoulder blades.   
“Go home, Kate” He softly said, taking her hands in his.   
Home? Where was home? Was it home a motel room? Was it home a Motor Home with countless crosses on its walls? Where was home?  
Where was home…if he couldn’t be with her?   
“I am home, Seth…” She whispered against his shoulders. And her throat ached. Her heart ached.   
Seth didn’t answer her, he let go of her hands and took a step away from her. He turned and looked at her, and for a second his was the face of the man she had met for the first time. There weren’t signs of pain, heart-ache. Even his smile was the same of the man who had once crossed the border to Mexico…feeling invincible.   
It only lasted a moment…and then he moved. He was quick…too much, both for a human and a vampire and in a second he was at the centre of the room, away from her.   
“Go home!” He repeated, “They’ve come for you!”  
“I’m looking for my friend Seth!”  
Carlos! It was Carlos shouting beyond the closed door! It was the voice of the son of a bitch who had told Seth to go to the Titty Twister!  
Seth looked at her, he was still smiling at her. The smile didn’t leave his face even while he shouted, “Tell your friends to shoot the door, Carlos!”  
“Seth…” She murmured, but she didn’t hear his answer, it was smothered by the noises of the door going down.   
“Now, Kate!” He screamed when the doors opened. And Kate didn’t know whether he was talking about the demon taking over him or her chance to escape.   
Light.   
She hated that light.   
It was taking her away from Seth.   
It was taking away Seth .   
Seth…whose eyes were now unnaturally green.   
Seth, who kept still while the Titty Twister was filled with light.   
Seth…who was now roaring.   
“Kate!” He shouted.   
Arms. Arms warm with sun, took her by her waist, while sunlight hit every surface of the Titty Twister.   
She struggled, breaking free from the arms holding her and ran to Seth shouting, “Who did it?”  
Light…  
It was quickly burning the gossamer veil separating her from the reality.   
It was a dream, yet she ran to him and repeated, “Who did it?”  
Seth took a step toward her, his flesh was now swollen with blood…with evilness.   
Sunlight hit him and Kate screamed.   
The scream caught in her throat as she woke up, together with Seth’s final words. The words of the man she loved. The words of the man who, in her dreams, loved her back . He had fought until the bitter end to let her live.  
Seth’s words just before exploding shattered the last remains of her dream and her heart.   
“You” He said. “You killed me, Kate!” _

_* * *  
It was Seth.  
And he was alive.   
And he was shaking her by her shoulders.   
Kate Fuller was fully awake. She had been torn from her nightmare with such strength that her last scream was still burning in her throat and heart.   
It was burning …and so were Seth’s last words and the terrible image of his body exploding.   
It had been a dream…and although she had known about it, it had hurt…it had fucking broken her heart.   
“Kate?” Seth’s voice sounded worried…and confused.   
Seth.  
Seth was alive!  
Seth was right next to her, on the bed.   
She vaguely recalled him popping a pillow behind his shoulders and turning on the tv, sound off, while she was falling asleep.   
It had been natural.   
So natural that she’d had a smile on her lips as she closed her eyes.   
She didn’t feel like smiling, right now. Seth’s hands were still on her shoulders…and they were warm and she was sure that if she had rested her hand on his chest she’d have felt his heart beating strong and steady under her palm.   
Seth was calling her name, now.   
If she had looked at him, she’d have noticed worry clearly etched on his face.   
But she couldn’t look at him, she couldn’t stretch a hand and make sure his heart was beating.   
Seth was alive…next to her.   
He was real…just like *her* heartbeats…gone crazy with the fear she could still taste in her mouth.   
Breathe.   
Kate had to breathe!  
Everything would be okay if she started breathing again!  
Everything would be okay if her eyes stopped stinging with unshed tears!  
“Kate!”_

_She started, freeing herself from Seth’s hold on her shoulders with an angry shake of her shoulders; for a moment it had been other hands on her shoulders…and she had recoiled at the contact…  
For a second, the shadow, which sometimes talked to her during her nightmares, the shadow she had just dreamed of, had been in that room.   
For a moment…the shadow had become Seth. And that was something she couldn't, wouldn't accept. Ever.   
“I’m fine…” She murmured, without looking at him just like without looking at him, she got up from the bed…putting distance between them.  
She had to go away.   
She had to go away from that room, she had to go away from Seth.   
She had to go away from her illusions. She had thought she could be someone else…  
She had to go away from what, even for a few days, she had almost had: happiness,warmth, love.  
If she did, if she went away maybe she would start breathing again…or she would stop altogether. She didn’t care which.   
Not in that moment, not while with her mind’s eyes she could still see the man she loved exploding before her very eyes, after telling her it had been her.   
After he told her she had been the one who had killed him. _

_* * *  
Enough!  
He had tried.   
He had tried to be the reasonable one. He had tried to understand. He had tried and tried more than he had ever done in his life.   
He had scratched the end of the barrel and then some….he had gone against his very nature.   
Now he had enough!  
Enough with the fucking emotional roller coaster! Enough with Kate trying to get away! Enough with those fucking icy walls behind which Kate sought refuge.   
He had tried. He honestly had.   
As per usual he had failed!  
Seth Gecko slowly got up from the bed, the pain on his ribs forgotten. Or, maybe, the fury he was feeling had erased anything else.   
What a shitty way to wake up! To say that before falling asleep, he had thought things with Kate were finally becoming simpler!  
He had liked it that she had fallen asleep on his bed, next to him.   
He had liked it that she had been smiling while she closed her eyes.   
And he had been correct to her that night.   
Who the fuck was he kidding? He had been a fucking boy scout…even when she had moved in her sleep and had ended up in his arms.   
He hadn’t taken advantage of the situation, although he had been tempted.   
Not that he hadn’t given it a thought…but then she had started moaning in her sleep…and his plans to stop being a gentleman, wake Kate up and finish what they had almost begun had gone to hell.   
Kate had started moving in her sleep, trying to break free from invisible enemies and had begun scratching her face with her nails.   
Then she had screamed.   
That’s when he had shaken her by her shoulders and had woken her up…only to see her freaking out some more.   
And Seth had had enough!   
Kate was hiding in the bathroom now; there was just a door between them.  
As if a closed door had ever stopped Seth Gecko! Without even bothering to put a shirt on, wearing only the jeans he had fallen asleep into the previous night, Seth stopped in front of the door, his arms on either side of the door.   
He took a deep breath. He was tired, very tired of playing St. Seth. He was a bastard, he was a son of a bitch and it was time for Kate to remember that.   
It took a kick, only one kick to open the door.   
He immediately saw her: she was resting her hips against the sink, and while he’d been busy finding the balls…his balls, lost somewhere else for the past few days, before he decided to kick that door open, Kate had undressed: she was trembling wearing only her bra and panties, while water was running in the shower.   
Although the room was hot and humid with the steam coming out from the shower, Kate was shivering.   
And Seth couldn’t care less.   
“What the fuck is going on?” He asked, resting his hands on his hips.   
The only answer Kate gave him was crossing her arms over her chest, refusing not only to speak but to look at him as well.   
She didn’t say, “You kicked the door open, you dickhead!”  
She didn’t even say, “What the fuck are you doing here, Seth?”  
She didn’t say a word.   
Not. A. fucking. Word   
He took a step toward her saying in a low voice, “I’ve asked you a question, Kate…what the fuck is going on?”  
“Go away, Seth…” She said and her voice was a throaty whisper.   
“No” He said. He took another step toward her, he didn’t even stop when Kate said, “I’m serious, Seth…back off!”  
Yet, she still wasn’t looking at him.   
And she was still shivering, and he noticed how goose bumps had covered the skin of her arms and stomach.   
“Not a chance, sugar! You’re going to tell me what the fuck has gotten into you!”  
“Fuck you!” She roared and for some strange reason Seth was happy she had had that kind of reaction.   
He knew fury, he knew how to deal with it, he knew how to use it. At the very least he knew how to answer to fury!  
Kate charged him: she was quick, but he already knew that. It was the slap in the face which surprised him, so much that it took him a second before he even felt the skin burning and another second, to block her, by taking her wrists in his hands, before she could hit him again, “Calm down, kiddo!” He said. He didn’t even raise his voice. _

_He wanted answers, that time…and he was going to have them!  
He strengthened his hold on Kate’s wrists when she tried to break free. Kate was strong; six years spent killing vampires hadn’t just given her scars and a nice collection of weapons to show off.   
She was strong…but not enough for him, not now. She tried again to struggle and get free but soon stopped when she realized he wasn’t going to let her go.   
She looked at him, for the first time since she had woken up and Seth noticed her eyes were bloodshot; she was too pale and her paleness made the bruises on her face look even more appalling.  
“Get out of my life, Seth” She hissed, still looking at him. And she was serious about it. She was as serious as a heart attack.   
And her words stung more than the slap she had just given him.  
Her harsh words stung so much that without even noticing the grip on her wrists lessened and she used his distraction to try and hit him again.   
He once more blocked her attempts to hit him, more out of instinct than because he was really paying attention to anything except for Kate’s hazel eyes and her lips pressed into a thin line.   
He shook his head, realizing that the thought of hitting her to calm her down, hadn’t even crossed his mind. Kate was hysterical, and part of him thought that a good slap would work wonders for her actual state of mind…and yet he couldn’t bring himself to.   
It looked like Kate had reached his same conclusions…or perhaps she had read right through him because she made him start, more out of surprise than pain, when she punched his chest and screamed, “Hit me, dammit!”  
Kate moved to hit him again but then she let her hand fall and asked in a nasal voice, “Why?”  
He could feel the anger inside of him, now. He could feel it roaring and it was so powerful that he had to clench his jaws and close his hands in fists to try and block it.   
Why? She was asking him why wasn’t he slapping some sense into her?   
He flared his nostrils …the fury was still there, almost blinding, he took a step toward Kate and wasn’t surprised when she didn’t move, when she didn’t step back.   
That was enough to lessen part of the anger …although he didn’t understand why.  
He looked at her and hissed, “Because it’s not who I am!”_

_He grabbed her wrists and that time, it was Kate who started. He looked at her trying to meet her eyes, although she was now trying to avoiding his gaze, while he said, “Is that what you think of me?! Uh, Kate? Is that what you think I am?”  
Kate tilted her head up, looking at him, she smiled and there was such loathing and grudge in that smile that his breath caught in his throat for a moment.   
Not even when he had threatened to kill her father had Kate looked at him like that.   
“I’m sorry, Seth…I had forgotten you are not a fucking bastard!” Her voice had trembled with barely suppressed anger as she said those words and so did her body.   
And Seth noticed he was trembling as well…from the inside. He let go of her arms and Kate tilted her head down, hugging her arms, her long dark hair veiling her face.   
Everything was clear, now.   
Kate was afraid…of him.   
Ever since they had crossed paths again she had been afraid. She had been afraid of having him in her life; she had been afraid of getting too close to him…just like she was afraid he’d leave her.   
It was written all over her face, and it had taken just a few words for him to understand.   
Mystery solved. End of the fucking emotional roller coaster!  
It was clear, at least judging by her last words, that what he had told her six years before, still stung.   
It was clear she hadn’t forgiven him for leaving her.  
He had known that story was bound to come up sooner or later. Those words had been hovering over them for six years…and had become like a fucking stone. Seth was surprised it had taken them so long to mention what happened that morning.   
Even now, Seth clearly recalled the way Kate had shaken her head and squinted her eyes before asking him if he needed some company, while the sun, the hot weather of that Mexican morning made the nightmare the ordeal they'd been through all the more real.   
He sighed, aware of Kate’s eyes on him and looked at her: Kate was panting and there was sorrow in her eyes, now.   
“Why?” She asked. And it didn't take a genius to understand what was she talking about, now.   
"I wanted to do the right thing," He eventually said, after long moments of silence. And it was the truth...or at least, part of it.  
“The right thing? For whom, Seth? For you or for me?” Kate asked. And although her words were as hard as rocks, her voice was low…she sounded tired…exhausted.   
Seth blinked his eyes. Was it so hard to understand for her?   
“Fuck, Kate…for you! I wanted to do what was right for you! You were just a kid… I ain’t a fucking boy scout, but sure as hell I’m not a creep…and besides you don’t know what El Rey was, you have no idea!”  
“I didn’t care! I didn't want to be alone, Seth!” She murmured, her voice had been barely more than a whisper but it had stopped him. She hugged even more tightly her arms and said, “I didn’t even know how to drive the Motor Home…I’d never learned…Scott did…and I was tired, I was so tired…”  
Kate shook her head and clamped her mouth shut. She ran a hand through her hair and took a step back, turning toward the shower to turn it off, swearing under her breath when the hot water hit her hand, and Seth, just like a few minutes before couldn’t help sighing.   
Growing a conscience and falling in love sucked, he decided. Yet he couldn’t help saying, “I’m sorry”  
He didn’t even realize he had said those words at the beginning; he stood still listening to his own voice murmuring, “I never meant it to end like this…”  
He stopped.   
What could he tell her? That he had forbidden himself to think about her, about what might have happened after he left her, alone, in Mexico? What could he tell her? That he had fucked things up, as usual, trying to fix things? Trying to make the right choice for once?  
Could he tell her that a kid didn’t belong with an ex con?   
It was Kate who, eventually talked, saying in a low voice, “It doesn’t matter any more. I meant it before…go away, Seth…”  
She was calm now…and tired. Right now she looked older than her age. Much older.   
“We can’t continue this…trip together,” Kate said. And Seth couldn’t help noticing how much her voice had been shaky while she had said those words. Almost as if she had been on the verge of tears.   
“Why?” It was Seth’s turn to say that word, now. He took a step toward her, effectively trapping her.   
Kate had covered her face with her hands as he got close to her; she tilted her head up and looked at him. Her eyes were dry and yet Seth could clearly hear tears in her voice when she said, “Because you’ll leave…one way or another…because we’ll get ourselves killed…and I can’t allow that to happen, Seth!”  
Seth frowned, puzzled. Did she really believe he would leave her? Did she think he would allow something to happen to her?  
Kate had taken advantage of his puzzlement to took some steps away from him, she had put on an old white robe, she fastened it, hugging it against her body and without looking at him said, “It’s funny, you know? I should have hated you…but I couldn’t…  
I should have hated you…instead” She sighed, “It was you…thanks to you I recalled I was still alive. I looked for you…I hoped to see you again.   
I dreamed of you…”  
Seth blinked once twice. So much for ending the fucking emotional roller coaster!   
The fucking truth was that he was back on it…with a vengeance!  
Kate loved him.   
Kate Fuller loved him.   
She hadn’t uttered the three magic words…but who the fuck needed them anyway?  
They were there, though, hidden in her nasal voice, in the way she was now looking at him.   
Without pretences, without shields. Without lust.   
It was just love….so strong that even he could recognize it!  
Kate loved him.   
It wasn’t just sex.   
It wasn’t loneliness.   
She loved him…and she wanted him to leave.   
Was it just his impression or there was actually something very wrong and twisted with that idea?  
“Kate” He started and was surprised by the softness…the love he could hear in his own voice. Kate too looked surprised, because she tilted her head on a side and rested her back against the sink sighing.   
She looked at him and softly said, “I don’t want to lose you too, Seth. I don’t want to ram a stake through your heart. I don’t want to see you exploding. I don’t want to be forced to do that…I…” she tilted her head down and added in a whisper, “I wouldn’t be able to do that…”  
Seth understood, now.   
He knew now what had happened.   
He knew why Kate had freaked out.   
He had been looking for answers about her erratic behaviour when she had woken up…and now he had them.   
Strange how he hadn’t understood it right away: Kate had had the motherfucker of all the nightmares that night. And she was scared…more than that…she was terrified.   
Maybe she had dreamt a different ending for what had happened the previous night in the alley or, maybe, the nightmare had been about that night at the Titty Twister…or God knew what.   
He wouldn’t know for sure until he asked…what he knew, what he was sure of, was that he had been in Kate’s dream…and she was now frightened.   
“It was just a dream, Kate” He just said.   
Kate jerked her head on his side, looking at him in surprise. She opened her mouth to speak but closed it immediately and shook her head.   
“Got some news for you, sweetheart: I can take care of myself” Seth said. And his voice was once again sharp, he closed the distance between them, not even aware at the moment that their bodies were now touching, and took her face in his hands, “And something else…I would never make you do what needs to be done. I’m quick, Kate. I’d do it myself. I’d never fuck you up like this!”  
Kate pushed him away from her and screamed, “Don’t you get it? I don’t wanna see you die, Seth! I don’t want to mourn you too! I don’t have tears any more!”  
Kate charged him maybe to try and hit him, but Seth stopped her before she could do anything. He grabbed both her wrists in his hands and pushed her against a wall, holding her arms up with his, pressing his body against hers while he said against her face, “I’m not going anywhere, Kate! I did it once…I’m not gonna do that again!”  
“Please, Seth…” She pleaded and Seth noticed that she wasn’t even trying to struggle. He had pinned her against the wall, blocking her with his weight…and she wasn’t putting on a fight.   
“I was wrong, Kate!” He said, “I *am* a fucking bastard!”  
Fire.   
Kate’s eyes were lit up with fire, now. It looked like she had found her strength back: she struggled to get free from his hold. Seth strengthened his hold on her wrists while he said, “Look at me, Kate! I’m not going anywhere…do you hear me? ”  
There. He had said it! He wasn’t going anywhere.   
Not that time.   
He wasn’t going to run away. He was there…to stay.   
Kate complied. She looked at him and Seth noticed how her efforts to break free became weaker and weaker until she stopped trying. She stopped struggling. She stopped fighting.   
She stopped being afraid.   
He saw it in her eyes, a second before he tilted his head down and claimed her lips with his.   
Kate was his. She belonged to him.   
The lips he was kissing with ever growing passion was his.   
Her body, pressed against his, belonged to him.   
Her fears, which were fading, kiss after kiss, second after second, belonged to him.   
Her tears…those belonged to him as well, although he knew he wasn’t going to allow anyone, anything to cause them. Not any more.   
He wasn’t going anywhere. He was there to stay…  
He tilted his head up, breaking the kiss, feeling breathless. Kate was breathless too, she was panting, while long brown locks, fell on her face flushed with passion, and her eyes were bright…and the look in them was clear from shadows, from fear and doubts.   
He let go of her wrists, while he still felt breathless.   
She was his.   
They locked gazes and once more their lips met, with the same passion, the same urgency, the same fire of the first time.   
He wasn’t sure when or how it had happened, but he was touching Kate’s skin, now, while the robe had ended up pooling at their feet  
Kate’s hand sneaked between them and Seth frowned in surprise when it rested over his abdomen, on the bandaging he still had.   
His…she was his. She belonged to him.   
He smiled against her lips, when she couldn’t help gasping in surprise when he scooped her up in his arms.  
“Seth…” She panted against his lips. He kept kissing her, over and over, while he blindly walked on the bathroom’s door and came back to their bedroom.   
Enough.   
No more interruptions. No more running away. No more past.   
Seth Gecko was finally home.   
* * *   
There weren’t words.   
There couldn’t have been. Not in that moment.   
Not while her heart was bursting in her chest with desire, with happiness.   
There were their hands though, that kept seeking each other's, drinking each other’s skin. There were their eyes. They had locked gazes and Kate doubted she could look away from him, even if she wanted.   
Doubts, fears, questions…they were all erased by their kisses, by the smiles which didn’t leave their faces.   
She was naked, in Seth’s arms, while his fingers were lightly brushing her stomach, tracing with his fingertips thin lines of fire, tattoos of desire that hardened her nipples almost painfully and made her tilt her head back, in pleasure.   
She wasn’t sure how and when Seth had freed himself from his jeans…or if she had helped him out of them. Time had stopped having any meaning, she just knew that she was naked, in Seth’s arms, more vulnerable than she had ever been…and she couldn’t stop smiling, she couldn’t stop looking at him.   
She was mesmerized by Seth’s look: so dark with passion, by his hands that were drifting on her body, by the taste of his lips.   
There weren’t words.   
There was pleasure, though. The pleasure was throbbing inside of her, at the centre of her being, almost painfully, craving for release.   
She had wished for that moment to happen, she had wanted Seth to lose control…for her, with her.   
Kate smiled, circling Seth’s hips with her legs, answering to the silent question in his eyes.   
Their wait was finally over, yet, Seth’s hand slid between their bodies and Kate couldn’t help a quiet moan, of surprise and pleasure, as Seth scattered a trail of soft, hot kisses on her cheekbones, on her chin and her throat.   
Pleasure: it was moving within her, forcing her to rock her body, seeking release. She felt Seth’s lips stretching in a smile against her throat as he still tirelessly teased her….and looked at her.   
She didn’t want to stop looking at Seth, not when pleasure burned within her, making her tremble, not while pleasure was becoming liquid fire.   
She arched her back, as her hips still moved, trying to linger in the moment as much as possible.   
It was different, that was the only thought her mind could conjure up in that moment, different than with other men. It was unlike anything she had ever experienced before, it was almost as if every inch of her body was waking up, it was like burning..  
It was…Seth. They were together, at last. Being with him, in his arms, was making it different.   
Seth…who was balancing on one elbow, while circling her waist with the other arm.   
There weren’t words, just soft sighs, barely held for a second, by both of them, when Seth entered her, filling her.   
The heart…her heart was bursting in her chest and Kate, unable to withstand temptation, grazed Seth’s chest with her hand.   
Seth’s heart was furiously beating in his chest, as well, as he kept still, inside of her, giving her time to adjust to the feeling of their bodies…united…at last.   
They moved together and again, there weren’t words.   
Lips. Their lips met, while Kate circled Seth’s shoulders with an arm, holding onto him, meeting his movements with her own, movements which were becoming more urgent with each passing second.   
With each push, new fire flowed into her, taking her breath away, and the colours around her become more and more vivid, and losing herself into his eyes when she moved away from his kiss, grasping for air, was simple. It was beautiful.   
Their movements weren’t low and gentle…but she didn’t care.   
Pleasure was burning them to the core but Kate felt that it was more than that...she read it in Seth's eyes, in his movements...  
It was them…together.   
There weren’t words…and she knew there wouldn’t be. There just were low sighs, when pleasure became too intense, for both of them to bear.   
She sought Seth's lips with hers, hungrily kissing him as she felt her body tremble and felt his pleasure nearing. She broke the kiss, moaning with pleasure, against his lips, as her body shook with the intensity of her orgasm, and saw his eyes darken as he found his own pleasure.   
There weren’t words. No words of love were spoken, not even much later, when Kate nestled her head against Seth’s chest, smiling at the sound of his heart beating.   
Who needed words, anyway? Not her, not in that moment, not while she was in his arms. In the arms of her love.   
* * *  
He should have called the authorities. That was the right thing to do.   
Gregory Sheridan took a look at the computer screen and then shook his head, refusing to meet the pictures of Seth Gecko. The mug shots of Seth Gecko.   
He had looked for the truth, he had wanted to know it, ever since he had left the small, bleak apartment where the man lived.   
He had wanted to know the truth, when the feeling he had that the two vampire killers had become extremely dangerous had grown inside of him.   
A thief. A killer. A jail breaker…that was “Jack”. That was his past...his life before becoming a vampire killer.   
He knew he had broken one of the unwritten rules among vampire killers: no questions, because the past didn’t matter.   
No questions, because the only thing that really mattered was the fight; the only thing that really mattered was killing the damn bastards.   
That time was different, though; Seth Gecko was dangerous, extremely dangerous.   
The fact that he had apparently changed his way of life didn’t make him any less dangerous for them, for their mission.   
Seth Gecko was anger, he was fury, he was death…he brought death: he had just changed aim. Why had he done that didn’t matter to him. Not right now.   
Seth Gecko killed monsters with the same cold blood he had probably showed while killing humans.   
And one day, that thief, that murderer would stop being lucky, or would lower his guard down…or he’d meet some bastard stronger, meaner than him…and he’d become one of them.   
He’d be worse than any vampire he might have fought, because he was already rotten inside. Because he knew the difference between right and wrong…he just didn’t care about it.   
And the fact that he looked like he was so close to Kate, to that girl who travelled in a Motor Home and had too many issues on her own to count, made it all more difficult.   
Because a vampire killer in love, was bound to make mistakes.  
Terrible mistakes which usually cost lives, innocent lives.   
It was inevitable. It was going to happen sooner or later.   
Gregory covered his face with his hands, resting his back against his chair. He had been in his study, to read the information he had been given over and over, for hours…and he was exhausted…and frightened.   
He had wanted to know the truth…for the vampire killers’ sake…and for the civilians, as well.   
He had wanted to know the truth…and now he was frightened by it. He feared for what it might happen, he was afraid of the darkness inside the vampire killer who had bloodied Texas six years before. Before he disappeared, only to being swallowed by their world.  
He should call the authorities; it’d be the right thing to do.   
Yet he knew he wasn’t going to, because Seth Gecko was a war machine…and that’s what they all needed right now. The situation near Vancouver was desperate, so much that vampire killers from all over Canada and part of the United Stated where heading there to lend a hand before it was too late. Before a whole town fell, taken by vampires.   
Seth’s help could be pivotal.   
He couldn’t warn authorities. He couldn’t call them.   
Besides, there was the chance that the cops might not be able to catch him…or that they could find out about their world, an underground world they all tried their best to keep that way. To protect civilians.   
It was an underground world Seth Gecko belonged to, whether he wanted it or not.   
He moved his hands away from his face and just like he had done dozen of times for the past hours he looked at Seth’s Gecko picture. Not for the first time he wondered how and when his life had crossed paths with Kate’s for the first time. Neither of them had ever talked about their own past, or he’d know. In a world like theirs, they all knew about each other’s past…except for Seth and Kate’s.   
None of them had ever told stories of loss and revenge…they just fought the fight.   
He knew, though, that they had both started killing vampires around the same time, and they had both been alone.   
They had always been on their own…until a few days before, when they had met.   
What had happened to them? He realized he had focused his search so much on Seth Gecko, on his past, that he had totally forgotten about the girl.   
He realized she might be a problem, as much as Seth.   
He had the truth, now. He knew the truth…at least, he knew part of it.   
He knew the truth…and it was terrible.   
It was merciless, like the world filled with death and pain they all lived in.   
It was terrible…  
What he had to do in order to protect their world, the vampire killers and the civilians was terrible.   
There wouldn’t be cops, authorities involved, he decided, because the man didn’t belong to that world any more. Seth Gecko was their responsibility, now. The vampire killers had to deal with him. And there was only one thing they could do to deal with him...and the threat he posed for their world: Seth Gecko had to die._


End file.
